



Military Order of the Loyal Legion 



OF THE 



vV^ y" United States. 






NECROLOGY 



OF THE 



COMMANDERY 



OF THE 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
1908 



COMPANION 

folm IHcliUistcr ^thoficIcT 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. UNITED STATES ARWY. 








Tci 



Military Order of the Loyal Legion 

M 

OF THE 

United States ' 



NECROLOGY 

OF THE 

COMMANDERY 

OF THE 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

1908 







>35 



v/ 



PRESS OF GIBSON BROTHERS, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
1908. 



T: ^31903 



Military Order of the Loyal Legion 

^' OF THE 

United States 
Commandery of the District of Columbia 



Hn nftemoriam 

COMPANION 

Lieutenant-General 

John McAllister Schofield 

UNITED STATES ARMY 
Commander-in-Chief of the Order 1899-1903 



Military Order of the Loyal Legion 

OF THE 

United States 
Commandery of the District of Columbia 



STATED MEETING OF JANUARY 1, 1908 



Excerpt from the Minutes 

55. Hi H: :l: :i: * * 

The Chairman of the Committee of Companions appointed 
at the Stated Meeting of May i, 1907, to prepare an " In Me- 
moriam" Tribute to deceased Companion Lieutenant-General 
John McAllister vSchofield, United States Army, ex-Commander- 
in-Chief of the Order, and in affiliation with the Commandery 
at time of his decease, submitted the following report, viz: 

"Commander:— Under the Resolution, unanimously adopted 
at the Stated Meeting of April 3, 1907, your Committee, 
as announced at the Stated Meeting, May i, 1907, has the 
honor to submit, herewith, the '7w Memoriam' tribute, as 
contemplated, to deceased Companion, Lieutenant-General 
John McAllister Schofield, United States Army; Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of 
the United States, 1899- 1903. 

The 7w Memoriam' embraces contributions from your 
Committee : 

1. Brigadier-General Thomas M. Vincent, U. S. A., Chairman. 

2. Colonel Felix A. Reeve, U. S. Volunteers. 

3. Acting Assistant Paymaster Frank W. Hackett, late 
U. S. Navy. 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFl^LD. 

and other contributions, as follows: 

4. Major-General Joseph P. Sanger, U. S. Army. 

5. Hon. John W. Foster, Ex-Secretary of State and Colonel 
U. S. Volunteers. 

*6. Brigadier-General William M. Wherry, U. S. Army. 
*7. Brigadier-General Thomas J. Henderson, U. S. Volunteers. 
*8. The Right Rev. Bishop Alex. Mackay-Smith, of the 
Diocese of Pennsylvania. 

Individual tributes have been deemed more fitting than 
would be a combined one by your Committee. The contrib- 
utors have supplemented each other. Where the recitals 
have touched parts of the same subject matter, it has been 
through a simple variation of language; and without consul- 
tation among or between the contributors. Increased value 
and interest have thus been added. 

When the 'In Memoriam' shall have been printed, it is 
respectfully recommended that a copy — in special and suitable 
binding — be forwarded to the widow of our deceased Com- 
panion. 

With the highest respect, 

THOMAS M. VINCENT, 
Brigadier -General U. S. Army, 

Chairntan. 
For the Committee." 

whereupon it was by unanimous vote ordered that the report 
be accepted, and, with the accompanying Tribute, referred to 
the Literary Committee and Board of Officere for due action 
in the matter of pubUcation. 

* Under the requisite consideration had by the Commandery Literary 
Committee and Board of Officers, the valuable contributions 6, 7, and 
8, specified in the foregoing Report, have been omitted in this pubU- 
cation, due to promulgation otherwise. They stand, however, as part 
of the Commandery Archives, and are thus accessible. 



3lu iHi^mnrtam. 

Companion JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD, 
By 

Companion Brigadier-General Thomas M. Vincent, 
U. S. Army. 



Truly has it been enunciated, by a noted biographer, that, in 
presenting any part of the Ufe and deeds of any great man, it is 
difficult, nay, impossible, to avoid presenting also other men 
and other things. What a man thinks and does; what his 
opinions and impulses are; what his relation to coincident 
events and affairs ; his heredity; his environment; the effect 
upon him of the opinions and the personality of other men; 
the influence of all these varied things that happen, and of 
which he is a part — all these things are so interwoven with the 
man himself, that, in order to get a just appreciation of him, 
it is necessary to consider them as well. The foregoing is 
applicable to the subject of this paper, embracing, as it does, the 
events and suffering of the people, of whom he was a part, 
during the momentous Civil War which has led to the "perpet- 
ual union" of the United States of America, and the "inde- 
structible brotherhood of the American people." 

John McAllister Schofield was born in the town of 
Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York, September 29, 1831. 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

His father was the Rev. James Schofield who was then pastor 
of the Baptist Church in Sinclairville, and, from 1843 to 1881, 
a "home missionary" engaged in organizing new churches and 
building "meeting houses," in IlUnois, Iowa and Missouri. His 
mother was Carohne McAlHster, daughter of John McAllister, 
of Gerry. The family removed to Illinois in June, 1843 — first 
at Bristol, thence to Freeport, where his father began his mis- 
sionary work by founding the First Baptist Church of that 
place. Subsequently he became highly distinguished. In the 
Civil War he was a Chaplain, appointed by President Lincoln ; 
and, in that office, many were the letters he wrote for dying 
soldiers, conveying to wife or mother the last message of love. 
In his childhood and youth he had the best possible oppor- 
tunities for education, in excellent public schools where the 
rudiments of English were taught with great thoroughness, 
in a fair amount of manly sports, and in hard work, mainly on 
the farm and in building a new home, which left no time, and 
little inclination, for any kind of mischief. At the age of sixteen 
he spent several months in surveying public lands in the wilds 
of northern Wisconsin, and, at seventeen, taught district school 
in the town of Oneco. By that time he had chosen the law 
as his profession, and was working hard to complete the pre- 
paratory studies, at his own expense. He returned to Freeport 
in 1849, and resumed "his struggle with Latin." Then the 
course of his life was unexpectedly changed, due to his having 
attracted the attention of the Hon. Thomas J. Turner, M. C. Mr. 
Turner, as one of the public school directors, had been present 
at an examination where young SchofiELd's subject was 
mathematical. Besides, he had heard of the stamina of the boy 



JOHN mcai.uste;r schofield. 

shown in the public land-surveying expedition ; and also from 
his father the desire of his son to get a good education before 
beginning the study of law. The result was the appointment 
of ScHOFiEivD to the United States Military Academy. To get 
there he sold a piece of land, the investment of all his little 
savings, thus to fit out and meet the expenses of the trip. 
He reported at West Point, June i, 1849, with less than two 
dollars in his pocket, at the age of seventeen years and nine 
months. He was soon met by William P. Carlin, of the second 
class, and Hezekia H. Garber, of the third, both from Illinois; 
and their protection in a brotherly way, with timely advice, 
saved him from "anything even approaching to hazing." For 
his room-mates, in the old South Barrack, he had Henry H. 
Walker and John R. ChambHss— "two charming fellows from 
Virginia." As to incidents of his cadet life we have his own 
words: * * * '"The first summer I was on guard only 
once. Then the Corporal of the grand-rounds tried to charge 
over my post without giving the countersign, because I had 
not challenged promptly. We crossed bayonets, but I proved 
too strong for him, and he gave it up, to the great indignation 
of the officer of the day, who had ordered him to charge, and 
who threatened to report me but did not. That night I slept 
on the ground outside the guard tents, and caught cold, from 
which my eyes became badly inflamed, and I was laid up in the 
hospital during the remainder of the encampment. On that 
account I had a hard struggle with my studies the next year." 
* * * "In our third class encampment, when Corporal 
of the Guard, I had a little misunderstanding one night with 
the sentinel on post along Fort Clinton ditch, which was then 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

nearly filled by a growth of bushes. The sentinel tore the 
breast of my shell-jacket with the point of his bayonet, and 
I tumbled him over backward into the ditch and ruined his 
musket. But I quickly helped him out, and gave him my 
musket in place of his, with ample apologies for my thought- 
less act. We parted * * * in the best of feelings." * * * 

ScHOFiELD devoted only a fraction of study hours to the 
Academic Course — generally one hour, or one-and-a-half, to 
each lesson. He never intentionally neglected any of his 
studies. It simply seemed to him that a great part of his time 
could be better employed in getting the education he desired 
by the study of law, history, rhetoric, and general literature. 
But he never disparaged the West Point education. He has 
said: "As it was, and is now, there is, I believe, nothing equal 
to it anywhere in this country. Its methods of developing the 
reasoning faculties and habits of independent thought are the 
best ever devised. West Point training of the mind is practi- 
cally perfect." His habit was in harmony with the expression : 
"He reads nmch; he is a great observer, and he looks quite 
through the deeds of men. * * * Literature gives a wide 
and deep insight into the nature of men and things." 

Due to the instructive teaching he received at West Point, 
ScHOFiELD, from the date of his first duty as a commissioned 
oflicer, enunciated that: "Nothing is more absolutely indispen- 
sable to a good soldier than perfect subordination and zealous 
service to him whom the national will may make the official 
superior for the time being." * * * p^t the relation 
between the Army and its administrative head, and with the 
civil power, are by no means so simple. When a too confident 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFlELD. 

soldier rubs up against them, he learns what "military disci- 
pline" really means. It sometimes takes a civilian to "teach 
a soldier his place in the government of a republic.'' * * * 

His constitutional habit once led him into a very foolish 
exploit at West Point. A discussion arose as to the possibility 
of going to New York and back without danger of detection, 
and he explained the plan. He was promptly challenged to 
undertake it for a high wager, and that challenge overcame 
any scruple he may have had. He did not care for the brief 
visit to New York, and had only five dollars, loaned him by 
Jerome N. Bonaparte. But he went to the city and back, in 
perfect safety, between the two roll-calls he had to attend that 
day. He returned to the Point a few minutes before evening 
parade, walked across the plain in full view of the crowd of 
officers and ladies, and appeared in ranks at roll-call, as innocent 
as anybody. 

After his entrance at West Point he attended the Bible 
class regularly every Sunday, and rejoiced greatly to hear the 
Scriptures expounded by the Chaplain who was the Professor 
of Ethics. He attached due value to the religious instruction 
thus received, and, after he had advanced in years and was the 
General-in-Chief of the Army, said: "I have never, even to 
this day, been willing to read or listen to what seemed to me 
irreverent words, even though they might be intended to con- 
vey ideas not very different from my own. It has seemed 
to me that a man ought to speak with reverence of the religion 
taught him in his childhood and believed by his fellow men, 
or else keep his philosophical thoughts, however profound, to 
himself." 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

January 9, 1897, before the State Baptist Convention of 
Florida, he deHvered an address wherein he said: * * * 
"When I was 13 years old my own father baptized me in the 
Jordan of Illinois. And amid all the sectarian speculations and 
discussions I have ever heard in more than half a century, it 
has remained constantly in my mind, as a fact of my own 
experience, that, whatever may have happened to anybody 
else, I have been baptized ! When about 30 years of age, after 
careful and conscientious study, I became united to the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church, in which faith, substantially, I have 
steadfastly continued up to the present time. But, for some 
years, members of my family, who were communicants of the 
Church of Rome, were criticized indirectly through attacks 
upon certain tenets of the faith of that Church, in a manner 
that seemed to me unkind and unjust; but it mattered little, 
as to the fact, whether unjust or not. Though I always have 
loved peace rather than war, and have never been disposed 
to seek a fight, that element in my nature was aroused that 
impels the tiger to action when his mate or her young are 
assailed. I did not permit anybody to attack the old Church 
in my presence, in a manner which seemed to me harsh or 
unjust, without resenting the implied insult to those who were 
dear to me. I doubt if old Rome ever had a champion more 
earnest than I at least appeared to be at such times." * * * 

"In conclusion I will simply add, lest I may be misunder- 
stood, that my present religious faith is to be found in that 
code of Christian doctrine upon which all the great doctors 
of divinity, of all creeds, who have studied and discussed the 
subjects for eighteen hundred years, are substantially agreed. 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIKLD. 

And I am quite sure the Divine Founder of Christianity does 
not require me to bother my poor head about nice questions 
upon which the learned doctors are still disputing." 

ScHOFiELD, as a cadet, manifested that "intrepidity" which 
in a higher degree distinguished him, through all the dangers 
and trials of his life, as a commissioned officer. Once when his 
horse ran away with him at cavalry drill, and placed his life 
in jeopardy, he sat the animal firmly — with bridle and saber 
hands in military position — and, by speaking to the animal, 
regained control and rode back rapidly to the squadron. His 
composure, under the circumstances, was remarkable! On 
another occasion, while the class was at artillery drill, elevating 
a heavy gun to position on its carriage, a skid gave way and the 
gun fell crashing to the ground — the skids moving with great 
force in all directions. The members of the class moved rapidly 
for their lives! SchofiKLd's serenity was magnificent! 

Near the last year of his cadetship, an event nearly proved 
fatal to his military prospects. As to this we have his own 
words: * * * "I was given charge of a section (of the 
candidates, who had reported June i) in arithmetic, and have 
never in all my life discharged my duty with more conscientious 
fidelity than I drilled those boys in the subject with which 
I was familiar, and in teaching which I had some experience. 
We had gone over the entire course upon which they were 
to be examined, and all were well prepared except two who 
seemed hopelessly deficient upon a few subjects, which they had 
been unable to comprehend. I took them to the blackboard 
and devoted the last fifteen or twenty minutes before the bugle- 
call to a final effort to prepare them for the ordeal which they 

13 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

must face the next morning. While I was thus employed 
several of my classmates came into the room, and began talking 
to the other candidates. Though their presence annoyed me, 
it did not interfere with my work; so I kept on intently with 
the two young boys until the bugle sounded. 

"I then went to my quarters, without paying any attention 
to the interruption, or knowing anything of the character of 
what had occurred. But one of the candidates, perhaps by way 
of excuse for his failure, wrote to his parents some account of 
the "deviltry" in which my classmates had indulged that day. 
That report found its way to the War Department, and was soon 
followed by an order to the commandant of cadets to investi- 
gate. The facts were found to fully exonerate me from any 
participation in, or countenance of the deviltry, except that 
I did not stop it ; and showed that I had faithfully done my duty 
in teaching the candidates. After this investigation was over 
I was called upon to answer for my own conduct; and, the 
names of my guilty classmates being unknown to the candi- 
dates, I was held responsible for their conduct. I answered 
by averring and showing, as I believed, my own innocence 
of all that had been done, except my neglect of duty in toler- 
ating such a proceeding. My conscience was so clear of any 
intentional wrong that I had no anxiety about the result. But 
in due time came an order from the Secretary of War dismissing 
me from the Academy without trial ! That, I beUeve, shocked 
me a little; but the sense of injustice was too strong in mv 
mind to permit of a doubt that it would be righted when the 
truth was known. I proposed to go straight to Washington 
and lay the facts before the Government. * * * So I 

14 



JOHN MCALLISTBR SCHOFIHLD. 

carried with me a great bundle of letters setting forth my 
virtues in terms which might have filled the breast of George 
Washington with pride. * * * j j^^d made an early call 
upon the 'Little Giant,' vSenator Douglass, to whom I had no 
letter, and whom I had never met ; had introduced myself 
as a 'citizen of lUinois' in trouble; and had told ni)^ story. 
* * * j^g repHed : 'Come up in the morning and we will 
go to see about it.' * * * I waited in the ante-room 
only a few minutes, when the great Senator came out with a 
genial smile on his face, shook me warmly by the hand, and 
bade me good-bye, saying: 'It is all right. You can go back 
to West Point. The Secretary (of War) has given me his 
promise.' * * * i returned to West Point, and went 
through the long forms of a court of inquiry, a court-martial, 
and the waiting for the final action of the War Department — all 
occupying five or six months — diligently attending to my mili- 
tary and Academic duties, and trying hard to obey all the regu- 
lations (except as to smoking), never for a moment doubting 
the final result. * * * Implicit trust in Providence does 
not seem to justify any neglect to employ the biggest battalions 
and the heaviest guns! * * --i: j j^^^j been Corporal, Ser- 
geant and Lieutenant up to the time of my dismissal; hence 
the duties of private were a little difficult, and I found it hard 
to avoid demerits." * * * 

Lieutenant Milton Cogswell had been very kind to Scho- 
FiEi.D during the period he was striving for restoration, and, in 
that connection, we have these words: "Hence, after my com- 
plete restoration to the Academy, in January, I found my 
demerits accumulating with alarming rapidity, and I applied 

15 



JOHN MCAUUSTER SCHOFIELD. 

for and obtained a transfer to Company C, where I would be 
under Lieutenant Cogswell and Cadet-Captain Vincent, my 
beloved class-mate, who had invited me to share his room in 
barracks." Prior to this transfer, he had been under a tactical 
officer esteemed as a most accomplished soldier and tactician, 
and the most rigid, but just and impartial discipUnarian. 
Cadets under his charge were reported more frequently — even 
for light offences — than by other tactical officers. 

He had exceeding respect and admiration for Colonel Robert 
E. Lee, the Superintendent, and Major Robert S. Garnett, 
the Commandant; and often referred to their dignity, impar- 
tial justice, and kindness. They had been his friends in time 
of need ! 

His first orders, after his graduating leave, assigned him to 
Fort Moultrie, S. C, as Second Lieutenant, by brevet, in the 
Second Artillery. He landed at Charleston, September 21, 
1853, l^^s birthday, at the age of twenty-two years. At the 
usual target practice he used the same guns that bombarded 
Fort Sumter in 186 1. As to his enjoyment in society, he has 
said: "Hospitality was unbounded and of the most charming 
character. Nothing that I have ever experienced, at home or 
in the great capitals of Europe, has surpassed or dimmed that 
first introduction to southern society." In December, 1853, 
he was ordered to Fort Capron, Florida, and removed to that 
station via Jacksonville, Palatka, Lake Monroe, New Smyrna, 
Mosquito Lagoon, and Indian River. It required twenty-five 
days for the journey which, at that time, was deemed quite satis- 
factory. At Fort Capron he met a garrison of four officers 
and sixteen enlisted men of Battery D, F'irst Artillery, recently 

16 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

from the Gulf coast, where yellow fever had been deadly. The 
post was remote from civilization, and received its mail gener- 
ally twice a month. An interruption resulted in that diversion, 
and no mail arrived for three months ! Fortunately for Scho- 
FiELD he had some law books — so few indeed that he learned 
nearly all of them by heart; then, for want of anything better, 
he read the entire code of the State of Florida, and extended 
attention to the Constitution of the United States. Of the 
latter he could repeat the exact words. 

In the winter of 1853-4, connected with the armed truce 
between the United States and the Seminole Nation, the policv 
of the Government had for its object the estabUshment of a line 
of posts across the State of Florida from Jupiter to Okeechobee, 
and thence westward to the Gulf of Mexico — thus to confine 
the Seminoles to the Everglade region. Schofield's first 
work, in the winter of 1854-55, was to open the old miUtarv 
road — route of General Twiggs — from the mouth of Indian 
River, across the Kissimmee and thence to Tampa. There- 
after the next step in the War Department strategical opera- 
tions was to occupy Fort Jupiter, construct a new post there, 
open the old military route — road of Generals Jcsup and 
Eustis — and build a block -house on the cast shore of Okeecho- 
bee Lake. Similar work, inclusive of another block-house, was 
to be undertaken from the other shore of the lake westward. 
With the western portion I was connected, inclusive of the 
exploration of the Big Cypress swamp and the Everglades. 
Thus, with the first field operations, SchofiEld and myself were 
engaged. Our topographical labors became connected and 
recorded through the War Department publication of April, 

17 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

1856: "Florida South of Tampa Bay." In the discharge of 
our duties we were stimulated by being in the region of his- 
torical battlefields — General (subsequently President) Taylor's 
Battle of Okeechobee, December 25, 18,37, and General Jesup's, 
January 24, 1838, not remote from Fort Jupiter. 

With the advent of hot weather, fever and dysentery — both 
east and west of Okeechobee — broke out. At Jupiter, nearly 
every man, woman and child sickened. The mortality was so 
great that hardly enough strong men remained to bury the 
dead ! SchoFiELD, so soon as he had sufficiently recovered from 
an attack, was sent with other convalescents to Fort Capron ; 
and there he acted as Post Surgeon, in the absence of a medical 
officer, aided by an intelligent hospital steward. Among others 
nursed by him at Capron was Lieutenant A. P. Hill — after- 
wards Lieutenant-General in the Confederate Army. Hill 
subsequently nursed SchofiELD during his serious relapse on 
the St. Johns River steamer, at Savannah and Charleston ; and 
when well enough to travel, took him to Culpeper, Virginia, 
where his devoted attention was continued for quite a long time. 

While at Capron, Schofield was promoted to First Lieu- 
tenant, and ordered to West Point, where his restored health 
permitted him to report the following December, 1855. He ever 
retained vivid recollection of his Florida ser\ace, and referred 
to the roads cut through the roots of the terrible saw-palmetto 
and corduroyed through swamps, with comfort to person 
entirely destroyed by the song and sting of the mosquito, and 
the bite of the flea and sand-fly. Constant alertness was 
demanded, due to huge alligators, and poisonous serpents — 
moccasins and rattlers. Connected with the expected renewal 

18 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

of hostilities of the Seminoles, the hardships of the exploration 
duties recalled the former war, 1835-42, and the pecnUarity of 
the service to which the forces therein engaged were subjected : 
"There was to be seen, in the Everglades, the dragoon in water 
from three to four feet deep, the sailor and marine wading in 
the mud in the midst of cypress stumps, and the soldiers, infan- 
try and artillery, alternating on the land, in the water, and in 
boats. * * * Comforts and conveniences were totally 
disregarded, even subsistence was reduced to the lowest ex- 
tremity. Night after night officers and men were compelled to 
sleep in their canoes, others in damp bogs, and in the morning 
cook their breakfast over a fire built on a pile of sand in the 
prov/ of the boat, or kindled around a cypress stump." * * * 
Similar experiences resulted, to a painful extent, in the Florida 
hostilities of 1854-57. 

West of Okeechobee, almost entire commands were pros- 
trated with serious illness. Post and cantonment hospitals were 
inadequate, and, as a result, an extensive general hospital — • 
approved by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War — had to 
be erected at Fort Myers, not remote from the Gulf coast. 

At West Point SchofiELD was assigned to duty in the Depart- 
ment of Philosophy, under Professor W. H. C. Bartlett: "One 
of the ablest, most highly esteemed, and most beloved of the 
great men who have placed the United vStates Military Academy 
among the foremost institutions of the world." 

SCHOFIELD has said that he had the great good fortune never 
to be compelled to report a cadet for any delinquency, nor 
to find one deficient in studies, though he did sometimes have, 
figuratively speaking, to beat them over the head with a cudgel 

19 



JOHN MCAIvlvISTlvR SCIIOFIKLD. 

to get in enough "phil" to pass the Academic Board. In his 
congenial West Point work, with the object "to develop the 
mental, moral, and physical man to as high a degree as possi- 
ble, and to ascertain his best place in the public service," vScho- 
FiELD formed, for the first time, the habit of earnest, hard mental 
work, to the limit of his capacity for endurance, and sometimes 
a Uttle beyond, which he retained for the greater part of his life. 
He overtaxed himself, and was forced to take a short leave on 
account of his Florida debiUty, which had reduced him almost 
to a skeleton. When he returned to duty he began to pursue 
physics into its more secret depths. He ever indulged the 
"ambition to work out the mathematical interpretation of all 
the phenomena of physical science, including electricity and 
magnetism." He mastered practical astronomy, and, as a 
result, said: "I do not beUcve anything else in the broad 
domain of science can be half so fascinating as the study of 
the heavens." 

In the midst of his absorbing occupation, he forgot all about 
the career he had chosen in his boyhood ; the law did not 
longer have its charm for him. Yet he found, in after life, 
far more use for the law than for physics and astronomy, and 
little less than for the art and science of war. 

In June, 1857, he married Miss Harriet Bartlett, daughter 
of his chief in the Department of Philosophy. Five children 
were born to that union: John Rathbone, born 1858, died 
1868; William Bartlett (now Major U. vS. A.), born i860; 
Henry Halleck, born 1862, died 1862; Mary Campbell (now 
Mrs. Avery D. Andrews), born 1865; Richmond McAllister 
(now Major U. S. A.), born 1867. 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

His term of service at West Point ended in the summer of 
i860. He has said that his taste for service in the Une of 
the army was gone ; all hope of promotion was still further 
away ; he had been for more than four years about nineteenth 
First Lieutenant in his regiment, without rising a file; he was 
a man of family ; and there was no captaincy in sight for him 
during the ordinary lifetime of man. Accordingly he accepted 
the Professorship of Physics in the Washington University, St. 
Louis, Missouri. Mr. Jefferson Davis, vSecretary of War, gave 
him a timely hint that promotion might improve, and General 
Scott gave him a highly flattering indorsement which secured 
leave of absence for a year. Thus he retained his commission. 

As the period of the Civil War approached he occupied 
a very large part of his time in reading and studying, as coolly 
as possible, every phase of the momentous questions which he 
had been warned "must probably be submitted to the decision 
of war." He took an early occasion to inform General Scott 
of his readiness to relinquish his leave of absence and return 
to duty, whenever his services might be required. His life 
in St. Louis, during the eight months preceding the war, was 
of great benefit to him in the delicate and responsible duties 
which so soon devolved upon him. His connection with the 
Washington University brought him into close relations with 
many of the most patriotic, enlightened, and, above all, unsel- 
fish citizens of Missouri — some were of the Southern school; 
but the large majority were earnest Union men, though holding 
various shades of opinion on the question of slavery. They 
were philanthropic, and had learned to respect the sincerity 
of each other's adverse convictions. 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

With the dawn that miUtary force would soon be required, 
he informed the War Department that he stood ready for miU- 
tary service, and was instructed to await orders at St. Louis. 
As soon as President Lincoln made his first call for volunteers 
orders were received by him to organize and muster in the 
Missouri quota. He urged the Department Commander as 
to the necessity for prompt action to protect the St. Louis 
arsenal, and made known to him a rumor that an attack was 
to be made by persons encamped near the city under the guise 
of State militia. In connection with Captain Lyon, then com- 
manding the arsenal, he was active, night and day, in getting 
loyal secret organizations into the arsenal, and distributing arms 
and ammunition to them. Thus the safety of the arsenal was 
secured. 

The strength of the force mustered by Schofield — with 
which the war in Missouri began — was about 14,000. June 24, 
1 86 1, he made full report of the force to the Adjutant-General, 
U. S. A. ; and, the next day, he was relieved from organizing and 
mustering duty, with orders to report to General Lyon at Boon- 
ville, as his Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff. Lyon had 
been elected Brigadier-General of the militia, and, May 17, was 
appointed by the President to the same grade in the United 
States Volunteer forces. May 30, General Harney was relieved 
from the command of the Department of the West, and General 
Lyon became the commander. May 10, Lyon had marched 
with the force then organized and caused the surrender of the 
militia at Camp Jackson. That force, though a lawful State 
organization, was an incipient rebel army, and it was necessary 
to crush it in the bud. In recognition of SchoFIELd's most 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

valuable services connected with the surrender, he was desig- 
nated by General Lyon to receive the surrender, take charge 
of the prisoners, conduct them to the arsenal, and there parole 
them. The possession of St. Louis was thus secured, and fur- 
ther operations could be conducted in the interior of the State. 
Accordingly, June 26, Schofield joined Lyon at Boonville. 
The objective of the Union forces was the southwestern part of 
Missouri, and preparations were made accordingly; General 
Lyon's march began July 3, and the command reached Spring- 
field July 13, and there met Sigel's Brigade. 

General Fremont reached St. Louis July 25, i86r, and, at 
the start, found himself in an enemy's country. St. Louis was 
in sympathy with the South, and the State of Missouri in activfe 
rebellion against the national authority. "In addition to the 
bodies of armed men that swarmed over the State, a Confederate 
force of nearly 50,000 men was already on the Southern frontier; 
Pillow, with 12,000, advancing upon Cairo; Thompson, with 
5,000, upon Girardeau ; Hardee, with 5,000, upon Ironton ; and 
Price, with an estimated force of 25,000, upon Lyon at Spring- 
field. Their movement was intended to overrun Missouri, and, 
supported by a friendly population of over a million, to seize 
upon St. Louis and make that city a center of operations for 
the invasion of the loyal States." 

"General Lyon's intention was, upon effecting junction with 
Sturgis and Sigel (at Springfield), to push forward and attack 
the enemy, if possible, while we were superior to him in strength. 
* * * '];he troops had to live upon the country, and many 
of them were without shoes. A continuous march of more 
than two or three days was impossible. Lyon's force was 

23 



JOHN MCALI.ISTKR SCHOKIEI.D. 

rapidly diminishing, and would soon almost disappear by the 
discharge of the three months' men, while that of the enemy 
was as rapidly increasing, and becoming more formidable by 
additions to its supplies of arms and ammunition. Lyon made 
frequent appeals for reinforcements and provisions, but received 
little encouragement, and soon became convinced that he must 
rely upon the resources then at his command. He was un- 
willing to abandon southwestern Missouri to the enemy without 
a struggle, even though almost hopeless of success, and deter- 
mined to bring on a decisive battle, if possible, before his short- 
termed volunteers were discharged." General Lyon's perplexed- 
ness was so heavy that he did not rise, as said by Schofield, 
"to an appreciation of the fact that his duty, as com- 
mander in the field of one of the most important of the LTnion 
Armies, was not to protect a few loyal people from the inevitable 
hardships of war, * * * j^^^- j-q make as sure as possible 
the defeat of the hostile army, no matter whether to-day, 
to-morrow, or next month." Otherwise "the Battle of Wilson's 
Creek would not have been fought." August 9, Lyon received 
a letter from Fremont, then commanding the Department, to 
the effect that "if Lyon was not strong enough to maintain his 
position as far in advance as Springfield, he should fall back 
toward Rolla until reinforcements should meet him." The same 
date Lyon replied: * * * "I find my position extremely 
embarrassing, and am at present unable to determine whether 
I shall be able to maintain my ground or be forced to retire. 
I can resist any attack from the front, but if the enemy moves 
to surround me, I shall hold my ground as long as possible." 
* * * Differences of opinion existed between Lyon and 



JOHN MCALIJSTliR SCHOFIEIvD. 

ScHOFiELD over the question which they had been discussing 
for several days, namely : "What action did the situation require 
of him as commander of that Army?" Schofield favored 
that the Army should retire ! After Lyon had decided to attack, 
not a word passed between him and SchofiELD on the question 
whether the attack should be made, except the question: 
"Is Sigel willing to undertake this?" and Lyon's answer: 
"Yes; it is Sigel's plan." 

The night of August 9, Lyon was not hopeful. Schofield 
encouraged him to take a more hopeful view, assuring him that 
the troops were easily rallied and were gaining confidence. 

By ten o'clock a. m., of August 10 — an eventful day — Sigel 
was out of the fight, and the enemy turned his whole force on 
Lyon. Meantime a body of troops was seen moving down the 
east bank of the creek, towards Lyon's left, and Schofield 
deployed eight companies of the First Iowa and led them in 
person to repel the movement, which they did most gallantly 
after a sanguinary struggle. Lyon, with an aide and orderlies, 
followed closely the right of the Iowa regiment, and the aide 
protested against his exposing himself to the fire of the line ; 
and asked if he should not bring up some other troops. Lyon 
assented, and the Second Kansas arriving, he joined it with two 
companies of the First Iowa, and, leading the column, moved 
forward swinging his hat. The enemy opened a murderous fire, 
and after a brilliant charge of the column — Lyon at its head — 
which drove the enemy, Lyon fell, penetrated by a ball in his 
left breast, and expired almost instantly. 

The engagement is considered as one of the severest of 
the War. "Never before — considering the number engaged — 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

had so bloody a battle been fought on American soil; seldom 
has a bloodier one been fought on any modem field." The 
Union force was 5,400 — with 16 guns; the Confederate force 
10,175 — with 15 guns. 

ScHOKiELD "was conspicuously gallant in leading a successful 
charge against the enemy," for which he received the Con- 
gressional Medal of Honor! He has said: "The plan of battle 
was determined on the morning of the 9th, in consultation 
between General Lyon and Colonel Sigel, no other officers being 
present. General Lyon said : "It is Sigel's plan, yet he seemed 
to have no hesitation in adopting it, notwithstanding its depart- 
ure from accepted principles, having great confidence in Sigel's 
superior military ability and experience." And Sigel has ad- 
mitted the weakness of "Sigel's plan" in the following words: 
* * * "It will be seen that the maneuver of outflanking and 
'marching into the enemy's rear' is not always successful. It 
was not so at Wilson's Creek when we had approached, unob- 
served, within cannon shot of the enemy's line; however, we 
were only 5,400 (with 16 guns) against about 11,000 (with 15 
guns). In a maneuver of that kind, the venture of a smaller 
army to surprise and 'bag' an enemy whose forces are concen- 
trated and who holds the interior lines, or inside track, will 
always be great, unless the enemy's troops are inferior in 
quality, or otherwise at a discount." 

The force engaged at Wilson's Creek arrived at Rolla August 
19, nine days after the battle, and the Army of the West 
disappeared in the much larger army which General Fremont 
was then organizing. Schofield's duties, as Adjutant-General 
and Chief of Staff, ceased August 13; and he then took com- 

26 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

mand of his regiment, the First Missouri, and, with it, was 
ordered to St. Louis, where the regiment was changed to the 
artillery arm. During that reorganization he hastily extem- 
porized a battery and proceeded with it to Fredericktown, to 
meet a Confederate force under Jeff. Thompson, which had 
interfered with the communication to St. Louis; and even that 
city was in danger. The engagement was sharp and resulted 
in considerable loss on both sides; but the Confederates soon 
gave way and retreated in disorder. vSchofield then left the 
battery with the Union forces — about 3,000 — and returned to 
resume his duties at St. Louis, where November 19, 1861, he 
was appointed by the President, Brigadier-General, U. S. Vol- 
unteers. He then reported to Major-General Halleck, com- 
manding the Department of the Mississippi, who, November 
27, assigned him to the "command of all the militia of the 
State," and charged him with the duty of raising, organizing, 
and equipping the force which had been authorized by the 
President. His official report, December 7, 1862, to the Depart- 
ment Commander and General in Chief (War Records, Vol. 
Xni, p. 7) gives an account of the purely military operations of 
that period. But many matters, less purely military, which 
entered largely into the history of that time, deserve more than a 
passing notice ; and we have vSchofield's words : ' ' During the 
short administration of General Fremont in Missouri, the Union 
party was split into two factions, 'radical' and 'conservative,' 
hardly less bitter in their hostility to each other than to the 
party of secession. The more advanced leaders of the radicals 
held that secession had abolished the Constitution and all law 
restraining the power of the Government over the people of 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

the Confederate States, and even over disloyal citizens of States 
adhering to the Union. They advocated immediate emanci- 
pation of the slaves, and confiscation, by military authority, of 
all property of 'rebels and rebel sympathizers' — that is to say, of 
all persons not of the radical party, for in their partisan heat, 
they declined to make any distinction between 'conservatives,' 
'copperheads,' and 'rebels.'" 

The "Confiscation Act" of July 17, 1862, was involved, com- 
plications resulted, and the instructions of the Secretary of War 
were repudiated by the President! Serious evil existed. The 
radical theory of military confiscation had been carried out by 
General Curtis, as Department Commander, for some months. 
ScHOFiELD, as his successor, put a stop to it! There was an 
appeal to the President who "directed the military to have 
nothing to do with the matter." August 4, 1862, feeling was so 
warm that a committee was sent to Washington, and Halleck — 
then the General in Chief — on August 10, telegraphed Scho- 
•FiELd: "There is a committee here * * * asking your 
removal on account of inefficiency." As to this Schofield 
said : " I have never had the curiosity to attempt to ascertain 
how far the meeting of August 4, was hostile to me personally." 

Subsequent to the departure of General Halleck for Wash- 
ington, July 23, 1862, there appears to have been a contest, in 
Washington, between the political and military influence, rela- 
tive to the disposition to be made of the Department of the 
Mississippi. The result was its division; and General Curtis 
was assigned to command the new Department of the Missouri 
composed of the territory west of the Mississippi River. For 
some months the radicals controlled, and military confiscation 

28 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOIflELD. 

was without hindrance. When the change occurred, SchoFiELD 
was in the field, in command of the forces assembled for aggres- 
sive operations, and designated as the Army of the Frontier. 
November 20, 1862, sickness compelled him to relinquish that 
command which he resumed December 20. The Battle of 
Prairie Grove had been fought December 7, resulting in the 
defeat of the enemy. It was evident that the campaign, in that 
part of the country, was ended, and SchofiELD took it for 
granted that the large force — nearly 16,000 men — was not to 
remain idle while Grant, or some other commander, was trying 
to open the Mississippi River. Accordingly he reorganized his 
command to hold the country we had gained, and, with three 
good divisions, to prosecute such operations as might be deter- 
mined on. He at once commenced the march north and east 
toward the theater of active operations. In the divisional 
reorganization it was suggested that one of the division com- 
manders should be relieved and assigned to the District of 
Kansas, where he had been permitted to go to look after his 
personal interests. That confidential suggestion was betrayed, 
and became known to Senator Lane of Kansas, and other polit- 
ical friends of the division commander contemplated for the 
district command. "The result of this, and radical influence in 
general," was that Schofield's nomination, as Major-General 
of Volunteers, then pending in the vSenate, was not confirmed, 
while two juniors, of Schofield's command, were confirmed in 
that grade of Major-General! vSubsequently SchofiEld had 
an interview with Lane, and made a note of it : "Went over the 
whole ground of his hostility to General S. during the past year. 
Showed him the injustice that he had done to General S. and 

29 



JOHN MCALLlSTlvR SCHOFlELD. 

how foolish and unprofitable to himself his hostility had been. 
He stated with apparent candor that he had bent the whole 
energies of his soul to the destruction of General S. ; had never 
labored harder to accomplish any object of his life. Said he 
had been evidently mistaken in the character and principles of 
General S. and that no man was more ready than he to atone 
for a fault." 

After the Battle of Prairie Grove, Schofield asked the Com- 
manding General of the Department to let him join the Vicks- 
burg expedition, but the request was not granted — for the 
reason that he was wanted to command the Army of the Fron- 
tier. As a result Schofield said, very properly: "The situa- 
tion seemed to me really unendurable ! I was compelled to lie 
at Springfield all the latter part of winter, with a well-appointed 
Army Corps eager for active service, hundreds of miles from any 
hostile force, and where we w^ere compelled to haul our own 
supplies, in wagons, over the worst of roads, 1 20 miles from the 
railroad terminus at Rolla. I could not get permission even to 
move nearer the railroad, much less toward the line on which 
the next advance must be made ; and this while the whole 
country was looking, with intense anxiety, for the movement 
that was to open the Mississippi to the Gulf, and the Govern- 
ment was straining every nerve to make that movement suc- 
cessful. Hence I wrote General Halleck, January 31, 1863, and 
February -:^. * * * "yUq whole correspondence may be 
found in War Records, Vol. XXH, part ii. In my letter Jan- 
uary 31,1 said: 'Pardon me for suggesting that the forces under 
Davidson, Warren and myself might be made available in the 
opening of the Mississippi, should that result not be accom- 

pHshed quickly.' * * * 

30 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIHLD. 

"The immediate result of this correspondence was that some 
troops were* sent down the river, but none of my command, 
while two divisions of the latter were ordered to the East. This 
march was in progress when Congress adjourned. The Senate 
not having confirmed my appointment as Major-General, the 
time of my temporary humiliation arrived. But I had not 
relied wholly in vain upon General Halleck's personal knowledge 
of my character. He had not been fully able to sustain me 
against selfish intrigue in Kansas, Missouri, and Washington ; 
but he could, and did, promptly respond to my request, and 
ordered me to Tennessee, where I could be associated with 
soldiers who were capable of appreciating my soldierly quali- 
ties. One of the happiest days of my life was when I reported 
to Rosecrans and Thomas at Murfresboro, received their cordial 
welcome, and was assigned to the command of Thomas' own 
old division of the Fourteenth Corps. One of the most agree- 
able parts of my whole military service was the thirty days in 
command of that division at Triune, and some of my most 
valued attachments were formed there. But that happy period 
of soldier life was brief. Early in May President Lincoln re- 
appointed me Major-General, with original date, November 29, 
1862, and ordered me back to the old scene of unsoldierly strife 
and turmoil, in Missouri and Kansas." 

May 24, 1863, ScHOFiELD relieved General Curtis in com- 
mand of the Department of the Missouri. In his instructions 
of May 22, Halleck said: "You owe your present appointment 
entirely to the choice of the President himself. * * * But 
I fully concur in the choice, and will give you all possible sup- 
port and assistance in the performance of the arduous duties 

31 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

imposed upon you." President Lincoln, May 27, wrote : "Hav- 
ing relieved General Curtis and assigned you to the command 
of the Department of the Missouri, I think it may be of some 
advantage for me to state to you why I did it. 

"I did not relieve General Curtis because of any full convic- 
tion that he had done wrong by commission or omission. I 
did it because of a conviction in my mind that the Union men 
of Missouri, constituting, when united, a vast majority of the 
whole people, have entered into a pestilent factional quarrel 
among themselves, General Curtis, perhaps not of choice, being 
the head of one faction, and Governor Gamble that of the 
other. After months of labor to reconcile the difficulty, it 
seemed to grow worse and worse, until I felt it my duty to 
break it up somehow; and as I could not remove Governor 
Gamble, I had to remove General Curtis. 

"Now that you are in the position,! wish you to undo noth- 
ing merely because General Curtis or Governor Gamble did 
it, but to exercise your own judgment and do right for the public 
interest. 

"Let your military measures be strong enough to repel the 
invader and keep the peace, and not so strong as to unneces- 
sarilv harass and persecute the people. It is a difficult role, 
and so much greater the honor if you perform it well. If both 
factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be 
about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by 
the other." 

SchoField's view dictated to him but one course as to the 
military situation — to send all available force to assist in 
the capture of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

to the Gulf. After that he could operate from points on the 
Mississippi as a base, capture Little Rock and the line of the 
Arkansas, and then make that river the base of future opera- 
tions. Accordingly he sent to Grant and other commanders 
all the troops he could possibly spare, saying that it would 
leave him weak, but that he was "willing to risk it in view 
of the vast importance of Grant's success." His loan of troops 
to Grant was returned with interest, as soon as practicable 
after the fall of Vicksburg; and he was then able to advance 
a large force for the capture of Little Rock, resulting in holding 
the entire Arkansas River line from that time forward. 

Grant was touched deeply by Schofield's action; and 
ever afterward manifested to SchoField his kind and generous 
confidence. SchoField coupled that manifestation with like 
manifestations of approval from President Lincoln, and viewed 
them as "the most cherished recollections of his official career." 
President Lincoln said: "Few things have been so grateful to 
my anxious feelings, as when, in June last, the local force in 
Missouri aided General SchoFiELD to so promptly send a large 
general force to the relief of General Grant, then investing 
Vicksburg and menaced from without by General Johnston." 

That communication was to the Hon. Charles S. Drake 
and others, a committee, then demanding SchoFIELd's removal ; 
and President Lincold added: * * * "Without disparaging 
any, I affirm with confidence that no commander of that Depart- 
ment has, in proportion to his means, done better than Scho- 
FiELD." After the radical committee had returned from 
Washington, SchoFIELD, October 13, wrote in his journal: 
"The radical delegation * * * very much crest-fallen. 

53 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

It is generally conceded that they have accomplished 
nothing." * * * 

"Senator Lane spoke at Turner's Hall last evening ; * * * 
was silent on the subject of the Department Commander. He 
informed me yesterday * * * that he had stopped the 
war upon me, and intended hereafter not to oppose me unless 
circumstances rendered it necessary. Said that the President 
told him that whoever made war on General SchoFiELD, under 
the present state of affairs, made war on him — the President. 
Said he had never made war on General S. 'except incidentally.' " 

As to an attempt to obtain, from SchoFiELD, some expres- 
sion of partisan preference, between the "pestilent factions," 
ScHOFiELD stated his position : "My dealing is with individuals, 
not with parties. Officially I know nothing of radicals or con- 
servatives. The question with me is simply what individuals 
obey the laws, and what violate them ; who are for the Govern- 
ment and who against it? The measures of the President 
are my measures; his orders my rule of action. Whether 
a particular party gains strength or loses it by my action, must 
depend upon the party, and not on me." 

In December, 1863, Schofield received a summons from 
the President to come to Washington. At the time, he felt 
that his administration had been fully vindicated. He was 
satisfied of some impending change, and cared not how soon 
it might come. His toilsome command, with its political com- 
plications, was not at all to his taste ; and it was with pleasure 
that he received the President's summons. He suspected that 
it resulted from continued erroneous representations to the 
President as to his views involving a union of the Missouri 

34 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

radicals and conservatives. Upon his first visit to the Presi- 
dent, the latter repeated the erroneous representation with- 
out intimating that he attached much weight to it. SchoFiELD 
at once replied by giving simple facts, and stated his true posi- 
tion on the question. The President promptly dismissed the 
subject saying: "I believe you, SchoFiELd; these fellows 
have been lying to me again.'' Previously to this some Mis- 
souri men had stated to the President their views as to the 
condition of affairs in that State. The President listened, and 
then took from his desk a letter from Schofield, read it to them, 
and then said: "That is the truth about the matter; you 
fellows are lying to me!" 

Schofield remained some time in Washington, and had full 
conversations with the President on public affairs — frankly 
told that it was impossible for him to reconcile certain differ- 
ences — indeed that he did not believe that any general in the 
army could, as Department Commander, satisfy the Union 
people of both Kansas and Missouri; neither the man, nor the 
policy, that would suit the one would be at all satisfactory to 
the other. Accordingly, the President soon determined to 
divide the old Department of the Missouri into three Depart- 
ments, and try to assign to each a commander suited to its 
peculiarities. But, he declared decidedly to Schofield — and 
to his friends in the Senate — that he would make no change 
until the Senate united with him in vindicating Schofield, by 
confirming his nomination as Major-General, then in the hands 
of the Senate Military Committee; and that then he would 
give Schofield a more important command! 

Within a month General Grant, then commanding the Mili- 

35 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCIIOFIELD. 

tary Division of the Mississippi, telegraphed that, due to ill- 
health of the commander of the Department and Army of the 
Ohio, it would be necessary to appoint a successor; and that 
he desired either McPherson or SchoField. General Halleck 
handed General Grant's despatch to Schofield and asked him 
how he "would like that." Schofield replied: "That is 
exactly what I want; nothing in the world could be better." 
Halleck then told Schofield to take the despatch to the Presi- 
dent; and Schofield in handing it to the President, said: 
"If you want to give me that, I will take all the chances of the 
future, whether in the Senate or elsewhere." The President 
replied: "Why, Schofield, that cuts the knot, don't it? Tell 
Halleck to come over here and we will fix it right away." 
Schofield started at once for St. Louis, to turn over his com- 
mand and proceed to his new field of duty. He left his old 
command "without regret, and with buoyant hopes of satis- 
factory service in a purely military field." Crowned with pre- 
eminence — as soldier, statesman, patriot — he had yielded his 
toilsome command and its political complications. Thrice 
favored was he by the justness of his cause. His enemies said : 
"Thrice, noble lord, let me entreat of you to pardon me!" 

On February 8, 1864, at Knoxville, Tennessee, he assumed 
his new command. The troops about Knoxville were : The 
Ninth Corps; two divisions of the Twenty-third; about 1,000 
cavalry; and two divisions of the Fourth Corps. Due to 
contingencies of the service, some of the organizations were 
reduced to skeletons. Of about 30,000 animals, with which 
General Bumside had gone into East Tennessee, scarcely 1,000 
remained; while his army of 25,000 men had been reduced to 

36 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

not more than 7,000 fit for effective service in the field. Such 
was the result of the siege of Knoxville ; and such the Army 
of the Ohio when Schofield became its commander. The 
miserable condition of the troops, the season of the year, lack 
of transportation for supplies and of a pontoon bridge to cross 
the river, rendered any considerable movement impossible. 
But apprehension existed and Schofield determined to assume 
the defensive, and maintain it, as far as practicable. He acted 
accordingly, and Longstreet's opposing forces withdrew across 
the Holston and French Broad, and retreated toward Morris- 
town. Subsequently they leisurely withdrew from Tennessee 
and joined Lee in Virginia. 

On April 7, 1864, Senator J. B. Henderson, by letter, informed 
Schofield that the Military Committee of the Senate had 
reported against his confirmation as Major-General ! His 
enemies had not been silenced, notwithstanding his approval 
and support by the President, the Secretary- of -War, General 
Halleck, General Grant and General Sherman. It was in con- 
nection with their support and approval that Schofield said : 
"I am willing to abide the decision of any one or all. of them, 
and I would not give a copper for the weight of anybody's or 
everybody's opinion in addition to, or in opposition to, theirs." 
* * * "Qrant was here in the winter, and Sherman only 
a few days ago. They are fully acquainted with the condition 
of affairs. I have been acting all the time under their instruc- 
tions." * * * It was during Sherman's visit that he dis- 
closed his plans to Schofield for the coming campaign, and 
the part Schofield was expected to take in it. The latter 
has said: "It would be difficult to give an adequate conccp- 

37 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

tion of the feeling of eager expectation and enthusiasm with 
which, having given (through his reply of April 15, 1864, to 
Senator Henderson's letter of April 7) my final 'salutation' to 
my friends in the Senate, I entered upon the preparation for 
this campaign. Of its possible results to the country there 
was room in my mind only for confidence. But, for myself, 
it was to decide my fate, and that speedily. My reputation 
and my rank as a soldier — so long held in the political bal- 
ance — were at length to be settled. The long-hoped-for oppor- 
tunity had come, and that under a general whose character 
and ability were already established, and of the justice of 
whose judgment and action, regarding his subordinates, thei;e 
could be no reason for doubt in my mind. My command was 
to be mostly of veteran troops, and not too large for my 
experience. Its comparative smallness was a source of satis- 
faction to me at that time, rather than anything like jealousy 
of my senior brother commanders of the Cumberland and 
Tennessee." 

His first care was to provide his troops with all necessary 
equipments, and to fill up the ranks. "It was a refreshing 
sight to see the changed aspect of the gallant little army as it 
marched with full ranks, and complete equipment, newly clad, 
from Knoxville toward Dalton." He quickly won the con- 
fidence of his men, and the Twenty-third Corps confided in 
him, as he did in them. An old soldier was heard to sav, as 
ScHOFiELD passed his regiment when it was under fire: "// 
is all right, hoys; I like the way the old man chaws his tobacco!'' 
About the close of the Atlanta campaign, Sherman said: "The 
Twenty-third Corps never failed to do all that was expected of 
it. * * * Where he [vSciiofield] was, there was securitv!" 

38 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

The Twenty-third Corps and Army of the Ohio, under Scho- 
FiELD, was engaged in action at Buzzard's Roost; Resaca; 
Dalton; Lost Mountain — numerous severe engagements; 
Kulp's Farm; Kenesaw Mountain; passage of the Chattahoo- 
chee; operations in front of Atlanta, and the battle and siege of 
that place. To take up the movements of the campaign would 
be beyond the sphere of this paper ; but I may say that Scho- 
FiELD did not agree with Sherman in all parts of his grand tac- 
tics and strategy. The fact was developed as the two discussed 
their battles. Nevertheless, Sherman was deeply impressed 
with SchoFiELd's views, and at the close of the Atlanta Cam- 
paign requested SchoFiEld to "write a full critical history 
of the campaign, as a text-book for miHtary students. Scho- 
FiELD hoped, as a labor of love, if for no other reason, to present 
his impressions "of those grand tactical evolutions of a com- 
pact army of 100,000 men," as he witnessed them, "with the 
intense interest of a young commander, and student of the 
great art which has so often in the history of the world deter- 
mined the destinies of nations." He expressed the view that: 
"Sherman's campaigns stand alone, without parallel in military 
history; alike unique in their conception, execution, and final 
results; in most respects among the highest examples in the 
Art of War. Plans so general and original, in conception 
and successful execution, point to a very high order of genius." 

Here I may refer to some incidents : 

The class-ring of 1853 bears the motto: "We separate for 
service." Little did the class realize what the service would 
be ! The impenetrable curtain of their mortal lives hung before 
them— they were simply 'little boats" about to pass down 

39 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

life's turbulent stream. After a few years they touched the 
curtain; it lifted slightly, and, during the Atlanta Campaign, 
James B. McPherson, Army of the Tennessee; John M. Scho- 
FiELD, Army of the Ohio — on the Union side under General 
Sherman; and John B. Hood with his forces, under General 
Johnston, on the Confederate side, viewed the Union and 
Confederate Armies in heroic strife, fraught with momentous 
results. The three classmates had in time of peace prepared 
for war. and resultingly, distinction crowned all of them as 
commanders of great armies. They were not longer to be 
classed as "little boats!" Through conjunction and evolution 
they stood in view as aggressive forces of striking note, 
intellectually and physically. The example should stimulate 
all youthful officers! 

McPherson and SchoFIEUd had discussed the chance of battle, 
in connection with Hood's general character, and agreed that 
they ought to be unusually cautious and prepared, at all times, 
for rallies and hard fighting, thus to meet Hood who was "a 
brave, determined and rash man." They remembered that at 
Gilgal Church, abreast of Pine Top, McPherson had overlapped 
Hood and captured the entire 4th Alabama regiment ; and that 
thereafter Hood left the front of McPherson, and, after a forced 
night's march, appeared on the other flank at Kulp's Farm, 
facing SchofiEld; and there, with his known method of 
charging and fighting, delivered, most intelligently, a desperate 
attack. 

The Confederates fell back before Sherman's armies— 
100,000 men and 23,000 animals — until Atlanta was in sight; 
and the Union forces were soon confronted from behind the 

40 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

Confederate first line of intrenchments, at Peach Tree Creek. 
July 1 8, 1S64, General Johnston was relieved, by Lieutenant- 
General Hood, from command of the entire Confederate force. 
The evening of that day the armies of McPherson and Schofield 
were destroying the Georgia railroad, between vStone Mountain 
and Decatur. The Army of the Cumberland, Thomas, was 
hastening to cross Peach Tree Creek, within six miles of Atlanta. 
The night of the i8th and morning of the igtli, Hood formed 
line of battle facing Peach Tree Creek— the night of the 18th 
McPherson and Schofield were well over that stream, and on 
the railroad near Decatur, when Hood issued orders looking 
to the isolation of their forces from those of Thomas, thus to 
crush the latter. 

The situation was such that McPherson and Schofield 
could not assist Thomas without crossing Peach Tree, and a 
long detour to reach that stream. McPherson and Schofield 
were thus checked. The position of the Union forces remained 
during July 21st unchanged, save a slight advance by McPherson 
and Schofield toward Atlanta. The morning of the 22d, they 
were still separated from Thomas, and Hood had planned to 
turn McPherson's left; but the attempt failed. The attack 
was sudden, while McPherson was with Sherman at the Howard 
House. McPherson immediately galloped toward the firing 
line, and, after issuing orders, rode through a thick forest 
interval, there to find the Confederates under Hardee fast 
approaching, and a call from the advance to surrender. He 
turned his horse, was instantly shot and fell to the ground. 
One of his orderlies escaped to convey the sad news. When 
the body reached the Howard House all felt the loss as irre- 

41 



JOHN MCAIXISTER SCHOFIELD. 

reparable. Sherman remarked that the entire Confederacy 
could not atone for one such life ! 

Profoundly deep as was the grief of Sherman, it could not 
equal the anguish that welled from Schofield's noble and 
sympathetic heart! 

George H. Thomas — Cavalry and Artillery Instructor of 
McPherson, Schofield and Hood at West Point — and Scho- 
FiEiyD were again to contend with Hood in Tennessee, particu- 
larly in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. There the 
impenetrable curtain continued to rise ! The mortal shape 
of McPherson had passed to immortality, and, as we trust, to 
be endowed with ' ' the greatness and strangeness of the Beatific 
Vision!" 

My intimacy with McPherson and Schofield warrants the 
enunciation that when they met, during the Atlanta Campaign, 
their thoughts were not removed from surrounding danger, and 
went forth to the exalted Commander of the Universe, to whom 
they promised: "Not to count the cost, to fight and not to 
heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor with 
the holy joy of knowing that we ever do His ever blessed will;" 
and that one day He would be their exceeding great reward! 
They were constantly at work, similarly to the weaver at his 
loom. They ever remembered the brittleness of Life's thread, 
and that the "living shuttle in the loom of time" was ever 
going and the woof was ever growing. I may associate their 
thoughts going forth through the words: 

42 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

"Lord, let me know them carefully each day, 

The spools on which the fragile thread is wound, 
The thread of life, nor let me with it play — 

A broken strand not easily is bound. 
And I would rightly blend, * * * 

For, as I weave, so must my life be crowned. 
Lord, let me throw them true, day after day, 

The shuttles round which life's frail threads are wound." 

They had remembered their ',' Bible class" at West Point, and 
profited by the inculcation received from the Chaplain and 
Professor of Ethics — fixed in memory by the inscription which 
had so often met their eyes over the Cadet Chapel chancel: 
"Righteousness exalteth a Nation. But Sin is a reproach 
to any people." 

They had remembered the rules for moral conduct and 
ignored self-love. "When conscience speaks, the voice of 
self-love must be silent!" After an action was performed, 
they conformed to self-examination, and realized that: 

" 'Tis greatly wise, to talk with our past hours. 
And ask them what report they bore to Heaven; 
And how they might have borne more welcome news." 

Thus the sensibility of conscience was increased as a source 
of pleasure or of pain — strengthened by use, and weakened 
by disuse ! 

"Love thyself last. Cherish the heart that hates thee. 
* * * Be just and fear not : 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy Country's, 
Thy God's, and Truth's; then, if thou fall'st * * * 
Thou fall'st a blessed Martyr." 

43 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

In Ethics — Science of Moral Law — McPherson and Scho- 
FiELD graduated very high; numbers 3 and 7, respectively, in 
a class of 52 members. From their studies they well learned 
that the greatest happiness of which man is in his present state 
capable, must be attained by conform.ing his whole conduct to 
the laws of virtue ; that is the will of God. 

After the capture of Atlanta, and while Sherman's army 
was resting, General Hood with his army took the initiative, 
and, by moving around Sherman's right, struck his railroad 
about Altoona, and toward Chattanooga— thence to march 
westward with design of changing the theater of war. from 
Georgia, to Alabama, Mississippi, or Tennessee. In connection 
with Atlanta, Sherman said: "Rut I had not accomplished 
all, for Hood's army, the chief objective, had escaped !" 

An essential modification of the original plan, to meet the 
unexpected movement of Hood, was to send back into Tennessee 
force enough, in addition to the troops then there, and others 
to be assembled from the rear, to cope with Hood in the event 
of his attempting the invasion of Tennessee and Kentucky, 
or to pursue and occupy his attention should he attempt to 
follow Sherman. General George H. Thomas, commanding 
the Department of the Cumberland, and already at the Nash- 
ville headquarters, was directed by Sherman to assume com- 
mand of all the troops in the three departments under Sherman's 
command, except those with the latter in Georgia, and to 
direct the operations against Hood. Stanley, with his Fourth 
Corps, started by rail to Tullahoma, and was to march, as he 
diverged from the latter point, to Pulaski, Tennessee, the point 
selected for the concentration of the forces of Thomas. 

44 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

The foregoing was the situation when SchoFiELD returned 
from an absence involving the business of his department— 
and reported to Sherman, near the end of October. At that 
interview SchoFiEld told Sherman that the force for Thomas 
was much too small ; that Hood evidently intended to invade 
Tennessee ; and that he would not be diverted from his purpose 
by Sherman's march in the opposite direction, but, on the 
contrary, be encouraged thereby to pursue his own plan. 
Hence SchoFiEld requested vSherman to send him back with 
the Twenty-third Corps to join Thomas. Sherman replied that 
he must have three grand divisions— one to be commanded by 
ScHOFiEED— to make his army, and that he could not spare 
ScHOFiELD. After SchofiELD left Sherman that afternoon, 
he wrote to him giving a special reason why his corps, rather 
than any other, should be sent back to Tennessee. No answer 
came to his suggestions until Schofield had made three days' 
march, en route to Atlanta— thence for Savannah. There he 
received an order, October 30, to march to the nearest rail- 
point and report by telegraph to Thomas for orders. Novem- 
ber 3, Thomas ordered him to come at once, by rail, to Nashville, 
with his corps, where he reported with the advance of his troops 
on November 5. He was then ordered, with part of his force, to 
Johnsonville on the Tennessee River, where Forest with his 
cavalry had appeared and destroyed much property, Thomas 
not having a sufficient available force to oppose him. vScho- 
FiELd's duty at Johnsonville, where he left two brigades, was 
soon ended. Then he returned to Nashville, and moved at 
once, by rail to Pulaski, arriving at that place the evening of 
November 12. The situation, in vSchofield's words, was as 

45 



JOHN MCAT.LISTER SCHOFIELD. 

follows: * * * "I had been with the entire Twenty-third 
Corps to Nashville, with part of it to Johnsonville and back to 
Nashville, and thence to Columbia, near Pulaski, all by rail; 
that all of the Army of the Cumberland then in Tennessee was 
the Fourth Corps, and the cavalry at and near Pulaski ; that 
General Thomas placed those troops under my command, and 
that they remained so until after the battle of Franklin, Novem- 
ber 30, and the retreat to Nashville that night ; and that General 
Thomas did not have any army at Nashville until December i . 
I had united with Thomas's troops two weeks before the battle 
of Franklin, and was commanding his army in the field, as well 
as my own, during that time." He had assumed the command, 
as referred to, November 14. November 20, he telegraphed 
Thomas pointing out the faulty nature of the position selected 
by Thomas at Pulaski, and the danger that must be incurred 
in attempting to carry out his instructions to fight Hood at 
that place. Thomas very promptly approved SchoFiEld's 
suggestion, and thus ended the embarrassment. 

The enemy advanced November 21, and Union troops were 
interposed between the enemy's cavalry and Columbia. Stan- 
ley, with two divisions of the Fourth Corps, marched from 
Pulaski to Columbia, and the Union cavalry moved on the 
enemy's right to cover the turnpike and railroad. The whole 
army was in position at Columbia November 24, and began 
to intrench. Hood's infantry did not come in sight until the 
26th. The intrenched position in front of Columbia was held 
until the evening of November 27. inviting an attack, and 
hoping that Thomas would arrive with reinforcements in time 
to assume the offensive from Columbia; reinforcements did 

46 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFlELD. 

not arrive, and the enemy did not attack. It became evident 
that Hood would not attack that position, but turn it by 
crossing Duck River above ; hence the army was moved to the 
north bank of the river, in the night of November 27. Thomas 
was very urgent that the Hue of Duck River might be held, if 
possible, as the arrival of Gen. A. J. Smith's Corps from Mis- 
souri had been expected daily for some time, when General 
Thomas intended, as was understood, to come to the front in 
person with the corps and all other troops he could assemble, 
take command and move against the enemy. Due to trouble 
with the telegraph code, Thomas and SchoFiELD could not 
communicate promptly; but the former in his official report 
referred to "instructions already given" and said: "My plans 
and wishes were fully explained to General SchoField, and, as 
subsequent events will show, properly appreciated and exe- 
cuted by him." 

ScHOFiELD received information— afternoon of November 
28— that Hood's Cavalry had forced the crossing of Duck River 
above Columbia; and in that connection, he said: "Only one 
thing was clear and that was that I must hold Hood back, if 
possible, until informed that Thomas had concentrated his 
troops; for if I failed in that. Hood would not only force me 
back on Nashville before Thomas was ready to meet him there, 
but would get possession of the Chattanooga Railroad and thus 
cut off all the troops coming to Nashville from that direction." 
Early in the morning of November 29, an infantry brigade 
was sent up the river to watch the enemy's movements; and 
at the same time Stanley was ordered, with two divisions of 
the Fourth Corps, back to Spring Hill, to occupy and intrench 

47 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

a position there covering the roads and trains ordered parked 
at that place, and General Ruger was ordered to join him. 
About 8 A. M.. of the 29th, Thomas notified Schofield that 
Smith had not arrived, and expressed the wish that the Duck 
River position be held until vSmith's arrival; and another 
despatch designated Franklin, behind the Harpeth River, as 
the place to which SchoField would have to retire if it became 
necessary to fall back from Duck River. Schofield thereupon 
decided to hold the Duck River Crossing until the night of 
the 29tli, thus gaining twenty-four hours more for Thomas to 
concentrate his troops. 

Stanley arrived at Spring Hill in time to beat off Forest's 
Cavalry and protect the trains. Then he intrenched a good 
position in which to meet Hood's columns which arrived in the 
afternoon, with the result that there was a hard fight lasting 
until about dark. "Hood went to bed that night, while I 
(Schofield) was in the saddle all night, directing all the impor- 
tant movements of my troops." As soon as Schofield was 
satisfied that Hood had gone to vSpring Hill, he took the head 
of his troops and marched rapidly to that place, and made all 
dispositions of his troops deemed necessary for safety. He 
appreciated the importance of having the pike to Franklin 
open, and, to learn that it was clear, sent his gallant and 
accomplished aid — Capt. William J. Twining — to "go at full 
gallop (with the headquarters troop) down the pike to Franklin, 
and to ride over whatever might be found in their way." The 
clatter of hoofs on that hard road died out in the distance, 
and Schofield knew that the road was clear! And his army 
marched across "the golden bridge by which the abyss may 

be crossed," en route to Franklin! 

48 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

Twilight had covered the Confederate Army, and we have 
Hood's words: * * * "Turning to General Cheatham, I 
exclaimed with deep emotion as I felt the golden opportunity 
slipping from me: 'General, why in the name of God have you 
not attacked the enemy and taken possession of that pike?'" 
* * * "It was reported to me at this hour (eleven or twelve 
o'clock at night) that the enemy was marching along the road, 
almost under the light of the camp-fires of the main body 
of the army. I sent to General Cheatham to know if at least 
a line of skirmishers could not be advanced, in order to delay 
their march, and enable me to attack in the morning. Nothing 
wab done. The Federals with immense wagon trains were 
permitted to march by us the remainder of the night, within 
gun-shot of our lines." * * * Hood had led the main 
body of his army to within about two miles of the pike from 
Columbia to Spring Hill— in full view of the pike — and there 
halted, about 3 p. m., November 29. He had ordered Cheat- 
ham to take possession and hold the pike, at or near vSpring 
Hill. If that had been done — if the Confederates had "taken 
possession and formed line across the pike" — Hood's forces 
as an easy matter, could ' ' have enveloped, routed and captured 
SchoFiEld's forces that afternoon or the ensuing day." Hood 
has added: "The best move in my career as a soldier, I was 
thus destined to behold come to naught." There was contro- 
versy — assertions and denials — between Hood and Cheatham 
as to the failure. Specifications need not be made here, as the 
subject is available in printed correspondence. 

The battles of Franklin and Nashville, followed by grand 
results, are prominently referred to in SchofiELd's "Forty-six 

49 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCIIOFIELU. 

Years in the Army," and the "Records of the Union and Con- 
federate Armies." In the first — pages i65to i88 — will be found 
valuable statements as to the campaign, with the addition — 
pages 189 to 225 — of a sketch necessary to full understanding 
of the operations preceding, and immediately following, the 
battle of Franklin. SchofiEld had said: "It is worthy of 
note, as instructive comparisons, that, on November 30, Hood 
advanced from Spring Hill to Franklin and made his famous 
assault in about the same length of time that it took our troops 
to advance from the first to the second position at Nashville 
and make the assault of December 16; and that the Fourth 
and Twenty-third Corps, on November 29 and 30, fought 
two battles — vSpring Hill and Franklin — and marched forty 
miles, from Duck River to Nashville, in thirty-six hours. Time 
is an element in military problems, the value of which cannot 
be too highly estimated. Yet how seldom has it been duly 
appreciated." 

As to the battle of Franklin, SchoField said: * * * 
"The charging ranks of the enemy, the flying remnants of our 
broken troops, and the double ranks of our first line coming 
back from the trenches together, produced the momentary 
impression of an overwhelming mass of the enemy passing 
our parapets. It is hardly necessary to say that, for a moment, 
my 'heart sank within me I' But, instantly, Opdyck's brigade 
and the 12th and i6th Kent-icky sprang forward and steadily 
advanced to the breach. * * * A few seconds of suspense 
and intense anxiety followed; then the space in rear of our 
lines became clear of fugitives, and the steady roar of musketry 
and artillery, with the dense volume of smoke rising along the 

50 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIKLD. 

entire line, told me that 'the breach is restored and the victory 
won!' That scene, and the emotion of that one moment, 
were worth all the losses of a soldier's lifetime." 

With the repulse of Hood at Franklin, "there was no further 
obstacle to the concentration of Thomas' forces at Nashville, 
and the necessary preparation for the offensive. * * * 
Thomas could have given battle the second or third day after 
Franklin, with more than a fair prospect of success." The 
shattered condition of Hood's Army prevented it from making 
any serious movement for some days. Eventually Hood 
fortified his forces near Nashville — within firing distance — 
where he remained two weeks, without firing a gun ! 

December 15, 1S64, in front of Nashville, the Union Armv 
attacked Hood's, and the morning of the i6th revealed the 
enemy in its new position, his left where it was before — in 
SciioFIELd's immediate front — but the rest of his line far 
back from the ground on which the other portions of Thomas' 
Army had passed the night. About 4 p. m., December t6, 
Thomas joined SciioFiELD near the Union right. The troops 
were then in movement, and Thomas had hardly exchanged 
the usual salutions when shouts on the Union left announced 
that a division of Smith's Corps "had already carried the 
enemy's work at its front, and our line had advanced and 
swept all before it." 

The resistance along the whole left and center of Hood's 
line cannot be said to have been either strong or obstinate. 
The Union losses were, comparatively, insignificant — the Con- 
federate fire seemed no more than that of an ordinary skirmish. 
What little fight was left in Hood's Army after November 30 

51 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

(at Franklin) had been greatly diminished, December i6 (at 
Nashville). December i6. 7:45 p. m., Schofield in his report 
to Thomas, said: * * * "I have conversed with some of 
the officers captured, and am satisfied Hood's Army is more 
thoroughly beaten than any troops I have ever seen." 

November 30, before the battle of Franklin, Thomas was 
"not ready for the battle at Nashville" and desired that Scho- 
FiELD should, if possible, hold Hood back for three days longer. 
The action, as determined between Thomas and Schofield, 
was ordered, and partially executed by the movement of trains 
toward Nashville before the Franklin battle opened — which 
was at 4 P. M., November 30, continuing until after dark. 
Hood was repulsed at all points, with very heavy loss. At 
midnight SchofiELd's Army started for Brentwood, where, 
early in the morning of December i, Schofield received orders 
to continue the march to Nashville. 

Well may it be said that the battle of Nashville was fought 
at Franklin ! 

December 27, 1864, vSchofield wrote to General Grant, 
at City Point, Virginia : * * * "It may not be practicable 
now for me to join General Sherman, but it would not be 
difficult to transfer my command to Virginia." * * , * 
And, December 28, he wrote to General Sherman at Savannah: 
* * * "I take it the object for which I was left in this 
part of the country has been accomplished, and I would like 
verv much to be with you again, to take part in the future 
operations of the Grand Army. Cannot this be brought about? 
I have written to General Grant." * * * 'f^g result was 
the transfer of the Twenty-third Army Corps, 15,000 strong, 

52 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

with its artillery, trains, animals and baggage, from Clifton, 
Tennessee, via the Tennessee and Ohio rivers and the Balti- 
more and Ohio Railroad, to the Potomac, in eleven days — 
distance, 1,400 miles. This movement commenced January 
-15, 1865, within five days after the movement had been deter- 
mined upon in Washington. It was continued by water to 
North Carolina, where, early in February, Wilmington was 
captured. March 22, when the right wing of Sherman's army 
reached Goldsboro, it found there the corps which a short 
time prior had been encamped on the Tennessee. The move- 
ment was much impeded by severe weather — rivers were 
blocked by ice and railroads rendered hazardous by frost and 
snow. ScHOFiELD "enjoyed very much being a simple pas- 
senger on that comfortable journey, one of the most remarkable 
in military history, and exceedingly creditable to the officers 
of the War Department who directed and conducted it." 

As to the defeat and practical destruction of Hood's army in 
Tennessee, Schofield has said that "it paved the way to the 
speedy termination of the war, which the capture of Lee 
by Grant fully accomplished. '■' * * The capitulation of 
Johnston was but the natural sequence of Lee's surrender, for 
Johnston's army was not surrendered, and could not have 
been compelled to surrender. * * * j^ military history 
Sherman's great march must rank only as auxiliary to the far 
more important operations of Grant and Thomas. Sherman 
at the time saw clearly enough this view of the case; hence 
his undeviating bent toward the final object of his march, 
disregarding all minor ends — to take part in the capture of 
Lee's army." We have the additional words of Schofield as 

to Johnston's capitulation : 

53 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOKIKLD. 

"At the time of Sherman's first interview with Johnston, I 
hinted that I would Hke to aecompany him; but he desired 
me to remain in immediate command, as I was next in rank 
and we could not tell what might happen. He took some 
others with him, but I believe had no one present in the room 
to assist him in his discussion with Johnston and Breckenridge. 
At his last interview I accompanied him at his special request. 
On meeting at Burnett's House, after the usual salutations 
Generals Sherman and Johnston retired to the conference room, 
and were there a long time, with closed doors. At length I 
was summoned to their presence and informed, in substance, 
that they were unable to arrange the terms of capitulation to 
their satisfaction. They seemed discouraged at the failure of 
the arrangement to which they had attached so much impor- 
tance, apprehensive that the terms of Grant and Lee, pure and 
simple, could not be executed, and that if modified at all they 
would meet with a second disapproval. I listened to their 
statements of the difficulties they had encountered, and then 
stated how I thought they all could be arranged. General 
Johnston replied in substance : ' I think General Schofield can 
fix it ;' and General Sherman intimated to me to write, pen and 
paper being on the table where I was sitting, while the two 
great antagonists were nervously pacing the floor. I at once 
wrote the 'Military Convention ' of April 26, handed it to General 
Sherman, and he, after reading it, toGeneral Johnston. Having 
explained that I. as Department Commander, after General 
Sherman was gone, could do all that might be necessary to 
remove the difficulties which seemed so serious, the terms as 
written bv me were agreed to, as General vSherman says 'without 

54 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

hesitation,' and General Johnston, 'without difficulty;' and 
after being copied, -without alteration, were signed by the two 
commanders. Johnston's words, on handing the paper back to 
Sherman, were: 'I believe that is the best we can do.' It was 
in pursuance of this understanding that I made, with General 
Johnston, the 'supplemental terms, 'and gave his disbanded men 
250,000 rations with Avagons to haul them." * v * 

ScHOFiELD, from the very earliest consideration of the vital 
question — restoration of civil government in the Southern 
States— labored ardently for a happy solution, and extended 
sound advice to that end. 

In June, 1865, after relinquishing command in North Carolina, 
he entered upon ser\dce in respect to the then existing inter- 
vention in Mexico by the French Emperor. It was proposed 
to raise an army under specified conditions; and the idea was 
"to aid the Mexicans without giving cause for war between 
the United States and France." Subsequently the proposition 
to raise an army was given up, and Schofield was called to an 
interview with the Secretary of State who then proposed that 
Schofield should "go to France, under authority of the State 
Department, to see if the French Emperor could not be made 
to understand the necessity of withdrawing his army from 
Mexico, and thus save us the necessity of expelling it by force." 
Schofield realized that the proposition seemed to place upon 
him the responsibility of deciding the momentous question 
of future friendship or enmity between his own country and 
our ancient ally and friend; but, August 4. 1865, he decided 
"to undertake the mission," and after several long conversations 

55 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

on the subject, Mr. Seward's explanations and instructions 
were summed up in the words : 

"I want vou to get your legs under Napoleon's mahogany 
and tell him he must get out of Mexico!" SchoFIELD reached 
Paris to find some "undue excitement in the public mind," 
and he availed himself of an early opportunity, given by the 
American thanksgiving dinner, "to intimate in unmistakable 
terms that [his] mission, if any, was one entirely friendly to 
the people of France." The following is a part of the account: 
* * * "The next toast was the long-looked-for one of the 
evening, for it was known that it would call up a distinguished 
guest from whom all were anxious to hear. It was: 'The 
Army and Navy of the United States.' \\'hen the band had 
ceased playing 'Yankee Doodle,' Major-General Schofield 
rose to reply, and was received with tremendous enthusiasm. 
The ladies rose and waved their handerchiefs, and gentlemen 
shouted until they were hoarse. The General * * * said: 
Fellow Countrymen — I want words to express to you the 
satisfaction which will be felt in the heart of every soldier and 
sailor when he learns the manner in which the names of the 
Army and Navy have been received by you to-night. I will 
at this time allude but briefly to one of the great lessons 
taught by the American War — the grandest lesson of modern 
times. A great people who have heretofore lived under a 
government so mild that they were scarcely aware of its exist- 
ence have found, in time of war, that Government to be one 
of the strongest in the world (cheers), raising and maintaining 
armies and navies vaster than any before known (cheers). 
In point of character, in point of physical and moral qualities, 

56 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

in point of discipline and of mobility in large masses, the anuies 
of the United States have never before been equaled (loud 
cheers). Yet this, great as it is, is not the greatest wonder 
of the American A\'ar. This vast army, as soon as its work was 
done, was quietly disbanded, and every man went to his home, 
as quietly as the Christian goes back from church on Sabbath 
morning; and each soldier re-entered upon the avocations of 
peace and a better citizen than he was before he became a 
soldier (renewed applause). This was the grandest lesson of 
the war. It shows that the power of a nation to maintain its 
dignity and integrity does not result from or depend upon its 
form of government ; that the greatest national strength — the 
power to mass the largest armies in time of war — is entirely 
consistent with the broadest liberty of the citizen in time of 
peace (enthusiasm). Permit me, in conclusion, to propose a 
toast which I know will be responded to by every true Ameri- 
can — 'The old friendship between France and the United States : 
May it ever be strengthened and perpetuated !' General 
Schofield's toast was drunk with great enthusiasm, and upon 
taking his seat the applause which followed his remarks was 
deafening." 

ScHOFiELD continued his marked skill in diplomacy, and, 
January 24, 1866, reported to Mr. Seward, by letter, and also 
to General Grant, ending in conclusion as follows: "An officer 
of the Emperor's household left here about ten days ago with 
despatches for Mexico, which, it is understood, contained the 
Emperor's declaration, to Maximilian, of his intention to 
recall his troops. This may give you some idea of the time 
when the matter may be arranged if all works well." 

57 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

The Emperor having become satisfied that vSchofield was 
not occupied with designs hostile to France, a very courteous 
letter from the Minister of War was received by SchofiELD, 
and an accomplished officer was directed to report to him; 
and, under official guidance, he saw all the military establish- 
ments about Paris. He was presented to the Emperor and 
Empress, and in conversation the former desired to know 
as to the operations of the American Armies — "especially the 
marvelous methods of supply at great distances from a base 
of operations." 

In August, 1866, he was assigned to command the Department 
of the Potomac, including Virginia and the reconstruction of 
that State. The manner in which he executed the "reconstruc- 
tion" acts of Congress, so as to save that State from the evils 
suffered by her sister states, is an instructive part of the period 
of that time. His administration was based on constitutional 
principles! No case arose in which it was found necessary, 
in his opinion, to supersede the civil authorities in the adminis- 
tration of justice. As district commander he refused to make 
himself a party to the spoliation of the people placed under his 
charge! He left Virginia impres.sed with the belief that the 
good people of that State appreciated the fact that he had ever 
labored for their welfare. 

In that convulsive period embracing the impeachment trial 
of President Johnson and the quarrel between the President 
and Congress over the War Department, he was urged to accept 
the office of Secretary of War, with the assurance that the contest, 
which endangered the peace of the country, could be adjusted. 
He consented, and when his nomination was sent to the Senate, 

58 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

that body — in spite of the large majority in opposition to the 
President — confirmed the appointment with almost entire 
unanimity. That great mark of confidence touched SciioFiEld 
very deeply ! AMien he yielded the War Portfolio, in March 
1S69, to the newly elected President, he had not incurred cen- 
sure from either party for any of his official acts — he had the 
approbation of all for impartial discharge of duty. 

Subsequent to his terra as Secretary of War, his services 
were varied and most valuable : In command of the Depart- 
ment of the Missouri; as President of the Board on Tactics 
and Small Arms; in command of the Division of the Pacific; 
on special m.ission to the Hawaiian Islands; in revising Army 
Regulations; as superintendent of the United States Military 
Academy, and in command of the Department of West Point ; 
as President of the Board of Inquiry, case of General Fitz-John 
Porter; in command of the Division of the Gulf; in witnessing 
Autumn Maneuvers of the French Army; in command of the 
Pacific Division and Department of California; in command of 
the Division of the Missouri, and of the Division of the Atlantic 
and Department of the East; as President of the Military Prison 
Board ; as President of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification ; 
and as General-in-Chief of the U. S. Army from August, 1888, to 
September 29, 1905; when, as he has said: "Came the hour 
when I had done, however imperfectly, all the duty my country 
required of me, and I was placed on the retired list of the army. 
Having been, at appropriate periods in my official career, by 
the unsolicited action of my official superiors, justly and gener- 
ously rewarded for all my public services, and having been 
at the head of the army for several years, near the close of the 

59 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

period fixed by law for active military service I was made the 
grateful recipient of the highest honor which the government 
of my country can confer upon a soldier, namely, that of 
appointment to a higher grade (laeutenant-General) under a 
special act of Congress. My public life was, in the main, a 
stormy one. * * * Many times I felt keenly the injustice 
of those who did not appreciate the sincerity of mv purpose 
to do, to the best of my ability, what the Government desired 
of me, with little or no regard for m}' own personal opinions 
or ambitions. But I can now concede to nearly all of those 
who so bitterly opposed me the same patriotic motives which 
I know inspired my own conduct; and I would be unworthv 
of m)- birthright as an American citizen if I did not feel grateful 
to my countrymen and to our Government for all the kindness 
they have shown me." 

In the foregoing words we see the modesty of an eminently 
distinguished personage! For the details of his military and 
civil service, students — particularly the graduates of our Alma 
Mater — may well study Schofield's "Forty-six years in the 
Army," as "dedicated to the young citizens whose patriotism, 
valor and military skill must be the safeguard of the interests, 
the honor and the glory of the American Union." 

He did not pass his days in calm weather, or in uninterrupted 
sunshine; and he was familiar with that old remark: "That 
an unclouded morn is not always followed by a clear and serene 
evening." He fully realized, at times, "that no virtues, how- 
ever great — no labors, however disinterested — no piety, however 
sublime and ardent, could protect him from the storm of 
persecution." 

60 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

In June 1891, at Keokuk, Iowa, he married Miss Georgia 
Kilboume, daughter of Mrs. George E. Kilbourne of that city. 
One daughter — Georgia — was born of that union. 

General Grant had not ceased, up to the last day of his life, 
to manifest for SchofiKld a very kind feeling; and one of his 
last efforts, when he could no longer speak, was to put on paper 
a remembrance mentioning SchofiEld's name. We have these 
words from Schofield : " It was General Grant whose voluntary 
application, in the winter of 1863-4, relieved me from the disa- 
greeable controversy with partisan politicians in Missouri, and 
gave me command of an army in the field. It was upon his 
recommendation that my services in that command were 
recognized by my promotion from the grade of Captain to that 
of Brigadier-General in the regular army, and Brevet Major- 
General for services in the battle of Franklin. It was Grant 
who, upon my suggestion, ordered me with the Twentv-third 
Corps, from Tennessee to North Carolina, to take part in the 
closing operations of the war, instead of leaving me where 
nothing important remained to be done. It was he who paid 
me the high compliment of selecting me to conduct the opera- 
tions which might be necessary to enforce the Monroe Doctrine 
against the French army which had invaded Mexico. It was 
he who firmly sustained me in saving the people of Virginia 
from the worst effects of the congressional reconstruction laws. 
It was he who greeted me most cordially as Secretarv of War 
in 1868, and expressed a desire that I might hold that office 
under his own administration. And, fmallv, it was he who 
promoted me to the rank of Major-General in the regular armv, 
the next day after his inauguration as President." * * * 

61 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIULD. 

"Matchless courage and composure in the midst of the most 
trying events of battle, magnanimity in the hour of victory, and 
moral courage to compel all others to respect his plighted faith 
toward those who had surrendered to him, were the crowning 
gloriesof Grant's greatness and noble character." * * * 

The concern of education and the interests of youth occupied 
SchofiEld's attention, and were exemplified by his life work. 
When consulted he stood ready to give judicious advice. He 
used his leisure in study, and was familiar with methods in all 
his undertakings. He was interested in awakening that latent 
curiosity in the minds of the young which is absolutely necessary 
for mental improvement. 

In the art military of the Ancients, he studied the under- 
takings of war ; its declaration ; the choice of generals and 
oflficers; the preparation — involving supplies; the raising of 
troops — their pay, provisions and arms; the march of armies; 
the construction and fortification of the camp, and its disposi- 
tions ; the employment and exercise of the troops ; the success 
of battles, with the manner of embattling; punishments — re- 
wards — trophies — triumphs; sieges, and attack and defense 
of positions. And thus his taste and favorite studies 
led him largely to evolution in the direction of those modem 
sciences which, in a few years, have imparted such enormous 
strides to the development of those mechanical means of attack 
and defense, changing, in a corresponding degree, the great 
problems of war. Illustrative of his bent, and as to artillery, 
aside from other arms, we have only to refer to his General 
Order io8, series of 1888, from the Headquarters of the Army. 
As to mobs and insurrections we have his General Orders 15 and 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

23, series of 1894, from the same source. He has said : "Science 
has wrought no greater revolution in any of the arts of peace 
than it has in the art of war. Indeed, the vast national interests 
involved, all over the world, have employed the greatest efforts 
of genius in developing the most powerful means of attack 
and defense." 

As a result of his extensive reading and study of Ancient 
History he could say with the historian: "Before me stand 
princes and kings full of wisdom and prudence in their counsels, 
of equity and justice in the government of their people, of valor 
and intrepidity in battle, of moderation and clemency in vic- 
tory, subjecting many kingdoms, founding vast empires and 
acquiring the love of the conquered nations no less than of their 
own subjects; such was Cyrus. At the same time I see a 
multitude of Greeks and Romans, equally illustrious in peace 
and war; generals of the most exalted bravery and military 
knowledge; politicians of exceeding ability in the arts of gov- 
ernment; famous legislators, whose laws and institutions still 
amaze us, while they seem almost incredible, so much they 
appear above humanity; magistrates venerable for their love 
of the public good; judges of great wisdom, incorruptible, and 
proof against all that can tempt audacity; and lastly, citizens 
entirely devoted to their country, whose general and noble 
disinterestedness rises so high as the contempt of riches, and the 
esteem and love of poverty. If I turn my eyes to the arts and 
sciences, what luster do not the multitude of admirable works 
come down to us display, in which shine forth, according to the 
difference of subjects, art and disposition, greatness of genius, 
riches of invention, beauty of style, solidity of judgment and 

63 



JOHN MCALUSTER SCHOFIELD. 

profound erudition." And yet, as to that splendid scene of 
history, he passed judgment — he found that everything was 
in esteem except reHgion and piety! And he well appreciated 
the words of the royal prophet that the "Lord looked from 
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that 
did understand and seek God." They were wanting in the 
fear of God without which there is no true wisdom ! 

He profited by ancient history, and gained a fund of knowl- 
edge and gratification through a narrative deeply imbued with 
antiquity — its spirit and feeling. He delved, for he knew that 
history recites maxims drawn from experience. But by pagan 
lore his mind, while enlarged, was not paganized ! 

With his knowledge of the evolution of ages, he was led to 
general military education, and his constant effort was to 
advance it — he claimed that it was indispensable to good citi- 
zenship, and to all in the legislative and executive departments! 
He held as to civic virtue, that it must be preserved to an 
extent such that in trying times, "men will not only die for 
their country, but that all men shall be compelled to live for it!" 

He strenuously held: "that the great object of education 
at West Point and other military schools is not to make high 
commanders, but to make thorough soldiers, men capable of 
creating eflfective armies in the shortest possible time, and of 
commanding small bodies of men. 

If great commanders are ever again required in this country 
they will come to the front in due time. They cannot be 
selected in advance of actual trial in war. Even West Point, 
though one of the best schools in the world, can, at the most, but 
lay the foundation for a military education. Each individual 

64 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

must build for himself, upon that foundation, the superstructure 
which is to make his place in the world. If he does not build, 
his monument will hardly appear above the ground, and will 
soon be covered out of sight." 

And, in that connection, he did not lose sight of "General 
Military Education " as indispensable; and pointedly referred 
to in his "Forty-six Years in the Army," page 519, and 
following. 

He was wedded to the necessity for thorough preparation 
for war at all times, and said : "Let the schools, of all kinds and 
grades, teach patriotism, respect for law, obedience to authority, 
discipline, courage, physical development, and the rudiments 
of practical military maneuvers; let the national and state 
military schools be fostered and protected, and the volunteer 
citizen soldiery given material aid proportionate to their, 
military zeal." 

I knew ScHOFiELD as my class-mate, room-mate and section- 
mate at West Point. We sat on the same bench in the section- 
room. We knew each other intimately, and our converse 
was ever open and most cordial. At his marriage to Miss 
Bartlett I was his groom's-man. After the death of his wife — 
the great aflfliction of his life — I stood by his side ; and when a 
like sorrow fell to my lot, he stood by my side. I served near 
him during his incumbency as Secretary of War; when com- 
manding the Division of the Gulf; when temporarily com- 
manding the Department of Texas; and when — for seven 
years — he commanded the Army of the United States, I was 
his Adjutant-General and Chief -of-Staff. While he was Super- 
intendent of the Military Academy, he asked the Secretary 

65 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFlELD. 

of War to assign me to the charge of the War Department 
MiHtary Academy Division, thus that there might be one in 
that position who knew him, and that, formally and informally, 
he might be in close touch with the Secretary as to Academy 
affairs. 

Subsequent to his retirement from active ser\'ice we met 
quite frequently and maintained our correspondence. AVhen 
in Europe he wrote, September, 1904: "My health seems 
to be much better than it has been for several years, and that 
is the main element in comfort and happiness." He had 
concluded to remain abroad for another year; but in June, 
1905, said: "We are at length on our way home * * * 
my health is slowly improving, but I am still far from well 
* * * I shall be glad to breath my native air again." In 
the autumn of 1905, he as usual went to St. Augustine, Florida, 
for the winter. January 8, 1906, he informed me, in connection 
with a pamphlet I had sent him : " I shall examine, with great 
interest, as soon as my head has its normal condition again. 
Just now a conflict is on between Malaria and Quinine with the 
usual disturbance of quiet thought. My system seems never 
to have been relieved entirely from poison absorbed so many — 
52 — years ago in Florida, * * * otherwise I have been 
very well indeed so far this winter." That was his last letter 
to me. I was shocked when informed by telegram that he 
died March 4, 1906. 

The "Pale Horse" stood to bear him forth; and ''Kindly 
Light" led through the encircling gloom — thus marking his 
requiem, in the arms of lasting peace ! 

We have the comforting assurance that, at his last conscious 

moment, he could say: 

66 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

"I feel within me 
A peace, above all earthly dignities, 
A still and quiet conscience." 

Onl}^ a few days prior to his death he made a trip to Key- 
West over the railroad now passing near the region of his 
early service as an officer, in 1853-4, and the battlefields of 
Jupiter (1836) and Okeechobee (1837). No doubt during the 
trip his thoughts reverted to his severe illness at Forts Jupiter 
and Capron, and his almost fatal relapse on the St. Johns River. 
It is an incident, that, over that river, his remains were carried 
to their final resting place at Arlington ! 

He had returned to St. Augustine February 17, and had 
been unusually well and happy during his absence, and up to 
the day of his death. 

Under the orders of the President of the United States, the 
funeral honors, due to a Secretary of War, marked the last 
tribute of respect. The services at St. John's Church were 
impressive and pathetic. The church was thronged — embracing 
the President and members of his Cabinet ; Senators and Repre- 
sentatives of the Congress ; the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court ; the Lieutenant-General, and other officers of the Army ; 
officers of the Navy; delegations from the Loyal Legion, Grand 
Army, Army of the Ohio, and other patriotic organizations. 
The Right Reverend Bishop, Alexander Mackay-Smith, offi- 
ciated with touching sadness, as he remembered "the last 
great figure of national importance, in the history of the Civil 
War, forty years ago," and contemplated the drum-beat, 
soon to sound, which he associated with the military signal 

67 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

"Lights out" * * * "of a sublime epoch, significant in all 
the ages." Outside the church, the adjoining streets were 
filled by the imposing funeral escort, and a great multitude. 
As the cortege moved — "sad and slow, as fits an universal 
woe, with martial music" — thousands stood, reverently, looking 
upon the funeral bier, with its casket covered by a wealth of 
flowers, the tribute of military organizations and mourning 
friends. At Fort Myer — entrance to Arlington — minute guns 
sounded, and soldiers bowed their heads. The commitment 
services — "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" — were followed by the 
volleys, the salute due to a Secretary of War, and "taps." So 
closed the earthly honors extended to John McAllister Scho- 
FiELD. The lamentations of the country marked his burial ! 

As I now think of the past, my beloved and devoted friend 
of 57 years stands before me : 

* * * "A promontory rock, 
That compass'd round with turbulent sound, 
In middle ocean meets the surging shock, 
Tempest-buffeted, Citadel-crowned." 

Additional well known words are applicable :* 

"Let his great example stand 
Colossal, seen by every land. 
To keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure; 
Till in all lands, and thro' all human story, 
The path of duty be the way to glory. * * * 
He that walks it, only thirsting 
For the right, and learns to deaden 
Love of self, before his journey closes. 
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting 
Into glossy purples, which outredden 
All voluptuous garden roses." .* * * 

*Ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington. — Tennyson. 

68 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

Let his countrymen : 

" For many and many an age proclaim * 
Their ever loyal leader's fame. 
With honor, honor, honor, honor to him. 
Eternal honor to his name. * * * 
He is gone who seemed so great — 
Gone; but nothing can bereave him 
Of the force he made his own 
Being here, and we believe him 
Something far advanced in State. 
And that he wears a truer crown 
Than any wreath a man can weave him. 
God accept him, Christ receive him." 



Thomas MacCukdy Vincent. 



69 



3In iiptttoriam. 

Companion JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

By 

Companion Colonel Felix A. Reeve, U. S. Volunteers. 



As a member of the Committee appointed by the Commandery 
to prepare an appropriate In Memoriam tribute to our deceased 
Companion Lieutenant -General John McAllister vSchoeiELD, 
U. vS. Army, it is my pleasure to co-operate with the other members 
of the Committee for two reasons. The first is my admiration 
for the splendid record made by General SchofiELD in his long 
career as a soldier and as a citizen ; and the second is for the 
more personal reason that he was my friend tried and true, 
and at a time when as the head of an executive bureau I was 
sacrificed for my poUtical convictions— dismissed from an office 
reached on civil service lines. 

But as the last consideration can be of little interest to any 
one except myself, and as the public services of General Scho- 
FiELD both as a military and a civil officer is faithfully and 
comprehensively commemorated by the other members of the 
Committee, my own part in the tribute to his memory will 
be easily performed. 

At the beginning of the Civil War, SchofiELD, then a first 
lieutenant, and without hope of immediate promotion, accepted 



71 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

the professorship of ph}'sics in Washington University, vSt. 
Louis. When the war seemed inevitable, he informed the 
War Department of his readiness to return to duty as a soldier, 
and was thereupon detailed to muster in the troops required 
of the State of Missouri. vSoon after he was appointed Major 
of the ist Regiment of the Missouri Reserve Corps, and report- 
ing to General Lyon on the 26th of June, 1861, he began duty 
as his adjutant-general. From that time Schofield's ser- 
vices became more and more conspicuous and his rise was 
rapid. 

It was in 1862 that the unseemly Missouri quarrel began 
between the conser\'ative and radical policies that endangered 
the cause of the Union in that State, and a committee was sent 
to Washington to demand the removal of vSchofield, who was 
then a Brigadier-General, on account of alleged inefliciency. 
His nomination as Major-General hung fire in the Senate. His 
friend, General Halleck, had not been able to sustain him against 
intrigue in Kansas, Missouri, and Washington, but in compHance 
with his request ordered him to Tennessee, where, with much 
satisfaction, he reported to Rosecrans and Thomas at Mur- 
freesboro, and was assigned to Thomas's old division of the 
Fourteenth Corps. But in May, 1863, President Lincoln 
reappointed him Major-General, and ordered him back to the 
"old scene of unsoldierly strife and turmoil in Missouri and 
Kansas." On the 24th of May, he reheved General Curtis in 
command of the Department of the Missouri. This was a dis- 
tinct triumph as the appointment was due to President Lincoln, 
whose support as well as that of his distinguished Attorney - 
General, Edward Bates, he had from the first. And to show 

72 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

the well-deserved confidence the President had in General 
ScHOFiELD and at the same time the tactful and unfaiUng com- 
mon sense of the great President, I will here insert, with no 
risk of being tedious, the letter addressed by the President to 
General SchofiEld, May 27, 1863: 

"Executive Mansion, 

Washington. 

"My dear Sir: Having relieved General Curtis and as- 
signed you to the command of the Department of the Mis- 
souri, I think it may be of some advantage for me to state to 
you why I did it. 

"I did not reUeve General Curtis because of any full convic- 
tion that he had done wrong by commission or omission. I 
did it because of a conviction in my mind that the Union 
men of Missouri, constituting, when united, a vast majority of 
the whole people, have entered into a pestilent factional quarrel 
among themselves— General Curtis, perhaps not of choice, being 
the head of one faction, and Governor Gamble that of the 
other. After months of labor to reconcile the difficulty, it 
seemed to grow worse and worse, until I felt it my duty to 
break it up somehow; and as I could not remove Governor 
Gamble. I had to remove General Curtis. 

" Now that you are in the positipn, I wish you to undo noth- 
ing merely because General Curtis or Governor Gamble did it, 
but to exercise your own judgment and do right for the public 

interest. 

"Let your military measures be strong enough to repel the 
invader and keep the peace, and not so strong as to unneces- 

73 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

sarily harass and persecute the people. It is a difficult role, 
and so much greater will be the honor if you perform it well. 
If both factions, or neither, shall abuse }'ou, you will probably 
be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised 
by the other. 

"Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln." 

But, as stated, I propose to present only a consecutive 
summary of the military fortunes of General SchoFiELD in 
this sketch, and will pass on to the time when I had the 
honor to serve under his command. 

In August, 1863, General Bumside crossed the Cumberland 
mountains with an army of 18,000 men for the long deferred 
relief of East Tennessee. It was on the 12th of the month 
when the 23d Army Corps, Department of the Ohio, commanded 
by General Burnside, left Danville, Kentucky. My regiment, 
the 8th Tenn. Vol. Infantry, was in the 2d Brigade of the 2d 
Division of that Corps. After campaigning up and down the 
valley of East Tennessee with undecisive results. General 
Burnside found his army besieged at Knoxville from November 
1 7, to December 4, 1863. On the 21st of December, Gen. Jacob 
D. Cox superseded General Manson in connnand of the 23d 
Corps. On the nth of December Gen. John G. Foster had 
superseded General Burnside in command of the Depart- 
ment of the Ohio. 

General Schofield arrived at Knox\dlle on Febniarj'S, 1864, 
and on the following day relieved General Foster, and took 
command of the campaign in East Tennessee, and in March 
conferred with General Sherman about the plans for the coming 

74 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFlELD. 

campaign in Georgia. In his entertaining account of it, Dalton, 
Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Rocky-face Ridge, Kenesaw, and 
Atlanta, become once more familiar, and it scarcely seems that 
forty-three years have elapsed since these and other places were 
made forever famous by that brilliant and successful invasion. 

On the 3d of November, General vSchofield was ordered by 
General Thomas to proceed at once to Nashville with the 23d 
Corps, to repel the invasion of the State by General Hood. The 
result was the signal victories at Franklin, Nashville, and other 
points, for the Union arms. The gallantry and skill of General 
ScHOFiELD in all of these engagements are familiar to every 
reader of that important campaign. And it is gratifving to 
observe the credit accorded to the 23d Army Corps and its 
brave and capable commander. Gen. J. D. Cox, as well as other 
commanders of corps, divisions, and brigades who proved 
themselves worthy of their wise, prudent and successful leader, 
Gen. George H. Thomas. 

General Schofield's conspicuous services did not terminate 
with the disastrous and final overthrow of General Hood at 
Franklin and Nashville. And it should here be noted that 
for his gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Franklin, 
General Schofield was made a Brigadier-General and a brevet 
Major-General in the Regular Army. 

In January, 1865, he was detached from Thomas's command 
and sent with the 23d Army Corps to Washington and thence 
to the mouth of Cape Fear River. In February he was assigned 
to the command of the Department of North Carolina, and 
after several engagements joined General vSherman at Golds- 
boro. He was present at the surrender of General Johnston's 

75 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIHLD. 

army on April 26, 1865, and was charged with the execution 
of the details of the capitulation. In June of that year he was 
sent to Europe on a special mission from the vState Department 
in regard to French intervention in Mexico. On his return 
in 1866, he was assigned to command the Department of the 
Potomac. In 1868 he succeeded Mr. Stanton as Secretary 
of War and remained in that office until the close of Johnson's 
administration, and under Grant until March 12, 1869, when 
he was appointed Major-General in the U. S. Army and ordered 
to command the Department of the Missouri. He was in com- 
mand of the Division of the Pacific from 1870 to 1876, when he 
was assigned to the superintendency of the U. S. miUtary 
academy, and in 1883 to the command of the Division of the 
Missouri, where he remained till 1886, when he took charge of 
the Division of the Atlantic. He was appointed Lieutenant- 
General in February, 1896, and retired in September of that year. 

As intended, I have briefly referred to the brilliant and mer- 
itorious services of our beloved Companion, Lieutenant -General 
ScHOFiELD. They are written in the annals of the great Civil 
War and in the hearts of all who had the fortune to serve under 
his command. He was not only a successful soldier, but he 
also distinguished himself in the discharge of the more pacific 
and not less onerous executive duties of a Secretary of War, 
and as a diplomatic agent of the Government at a critical time. 

For myself I may be permitted to say that I not only admired 
General Schofield as a soldier, but esteemed him as a personal 
friend, and it is with no little satisfaction I remember that some 
years ago when I was recommended for Judge-Advocate-Gen- 
eral of the Army in view of an expected vacancy, I was informed 

76 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

by General Schofield that my appointment, if made, would 
be wholly gratifying to him. In our temporal fortunes, or 
misfortunes, it is a hopeful and encouraging asset to have 
the confidence of such a man, and it becomes a pleasant memory 
in the after years. 

General SchoFiELD was richly endowed with a miUtary instinct 
and was gifted with the "genius of common sense." His whole 
career in the service of the country was ever characterized by 
a conscientious devotion to duty; and we may well believe 
that when the inevitable end came, crowned with the shining 
deeds of a good and patriotic Ufe, he was ready to join the other 
great soldiers of the RepubUc who already in answer to the 
summons of the Master, had assembled on the far-extending 
encampment beyond the river! 

In his decUning days at St. Helena, Napoleon said, "I shall 
join my brave companions in the Elysian Fields. Yes, Kleber, 
Desaix, Bessieres, Duroc, Ney, Murat, Massena, Berthier. will 
all come to meet me. They will speak to me of what we have 
done together, and I will relate to them the last events of my 
Ufe. On seeing me again, they will all become once more 
animated with enthusiasm and glory. We will talk of our wars 
with the Scipios, Hannibal. Caesar, Frederick." vSo, we may 
believe that in the glorious, peaceful, and eternal world, our 
Companion is again with Grant, and Sherman, and Thomas, 
and Sheridan, and Rosecrans, and the thousands of others 
who in their respective places co-operated in a common cause 

to save the life of the Nation ! 

FELIX A. REEVE. 

Washington, D. C, 

October lo, 1907. 



din iE^mortam. 
Companion JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 



By 



Companion Acting Assistant Paymaster Frank W. 
Hackett, IvATE U. S. Navy. 



When a man of unusual distinction goes out of the world, 
leaving behind him a record of achievement that is one unbroken 
line of success, we are apt to refer much of his good fortune to 
the circumstance that he had pursued the Ufe-work that best 
suited him. The inference in most instances, is doubtless 
correct. But now and then an individual appears, whose 
display of ability in many directions is so marked that it occurs 
to us to speculate a little ; and we enquire, how came this man 
to make the choice that he did ; and what measure of success 
is it Hkely that he would have attained, had he selected some 
other pursuit. 

John McAllister SchofiEld was a many-sided man. A 
great soldier; had fate assigned him another road upon which 
to travel, he still would have reached eminence. Certain it is 
that he would have made his mark as a lawyer or a judge 
had he studied law, as when a boy it was his purpose to do ; 
for it was by the merest accident that an appointment to West 



79 



JOHN MCALUSTER SCHOFlELD. 

Point fell to him. Had he turned to teaching as a profession, 
he would undoubtedly have become an educator of the very 
first rank. In a word, the youth had in him the making of 
a great man. 

Fortunately for his country, our friend chose the profession 
of arms. His fitness for that profession, and the services 
which he has rendered, have been the subject of judicious and 
well-deserved praise. That his military efficiency was of an 
unusually high order is generally conceded. Had opportunity 
favored, there is reason to beUeve that SchoFiELD would have 
taken rank as one of the world's great commanders ; for he was 
endowed with that rare combination of qualities that means 
success in the problem of planning a campaign and handling 
a great army in the field. 

So brave and skillful a general did he prove himself, that 
one may very readily be excused for overlooking the fact that 
there exists another side to Schofield's record which is deserv- 
ing of special mention — and that is, his aptitude for perform- 
ing the duties of a statesman. 

Let me briefly refer to one or two spheres of activity, wherein 
he did work of inestimable value. When we remember that 
General Schofield at the close of the war had scarcely reached 
the age of thirty-five, we may well feel surprised that he did 
so much in the field that could only have been done by a soldier 
of a cool head and matured judgment. Indeed, this quality 
of an admirable self-control is a marked feature of his character. 

He proved to be just the man that was needed during the 
very trying period of reconstruction. But before his talent 
was availed of in this direction, he had been selected by 

80 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

Secretary vSevvard to go abroad upon a diplomatic mission of 
the highest importance. In June, 1865, he went to France, em- 
powered to act largely upon his own discretion in determining 
the means of conveying to the Emperor a plain intimation 
that the French Army had best get out of Mexico without 
further delay. The simple fact that a duty so deUcate in its 
nature should have been entrusted to him, itself testifies to 
the worth and ability of this modest soldier. 

Coming home after a year's absence, he was called into the 
Cabinet of President Johnson, where he served efficiently as 
Secretary of War. He knew and understood Andrew Johnson 
far better than did the vast majority of northern men. While 
Secretary of War he demonstrated his fitness for the position 
of President of the United States, though it is not possible that 
an idea of reaching that position had ever entered his mind. 
Few men have possessed in a higher degree than he the habits 
of thought and the training needful for that exalted ofiice. 
Firm, but not opinionated; industrious, and yet knowing how 
to despatch business expeditiously ; broad-minded so as to view 
all parts of the Union with like interest and devotion; and 
above all, entertaining a profound respect for law and author- 
ity, such a man as General SchoField fully met, it seems to 
me, the exacting qualifications necessary for a successful admin- 
istration of the Presidency. 

He was no politician, but a straightforward, open-hearted 
officer of the army. His instincts were sound; his loyalty 
unquestioned; his knowledge of human nature far-reaching 
and thorough. Public questions with which he had to deal 
he examined most carefully. To his vision the limit between 

81 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

the military and civil authority was precisely defined. No man 
revered the Constitution more. He was a firm believer in the 
endurance of democratic instituitons, and in the assured 
happy fortune of his country for the future. 

We gain an insight into the character of our Companion, 
not only from the record of what he did in the field, and in the 
Cabinet, but from an interesting and valuable book that he 
gave to the pubhc, about ten years ago, entitled "Forty-six 
Years in the Army." 

Here, to any one who reads between the lines, there is plainly 
disclosed the strength and fiber of General SchofiELD's character. 
He modestly tells the reader that he has meant this volume 
to be nothing more than a contribution of material for the 
future historian. The entire absence of self-laudation, the 
generous estimate of his companions in arms, the clear, lucid 
narrative, and the calm, impartial tone of his comments, all 
combine to stamp the author as a man of unselfish disposition 
and of fine intellectual endowment. 

The caUber of the man is distinctly shown in what he tells 
us in this book as to the Board of Review, over which he pre- 
sided in 1878, constituted to hear new evidence in the case of 
Major-General Fitz John Porter. Here Schofield did what it 
was difficult to do — rose above prejudice. He expresses it 
as his opinion that "no Government can be regarded as just 
to its Army unless it provides, tmder appropriate conditions, 
for the rehearing of cases that may be tried by court-martial 
in time of war." 

The strong sense of justice displayed in advancing such an 
opinion as this, is worthy, it needs hardly be said, of the highest 

82 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

commendation. General Schoi'iELD exercised a clear insight 
into the proper methods of securing efficiency in the Army. 
He loved his profession, and he gave his best thought to the 
means of steadily improving that branch of the ser\'ice, of which 
he was so conspicuous an ornament. 

To conclude, we may praise the late Commander-in-Chief 
of the Loyal Legion of the United States without fear of passing 
the bounds of just and well-founded admiration. The secret 
of his success was that he was a man of abounding common 
sense. It is matter of histoiy that for many }'ears when he 
was in Washington, pubUc men of the Cabinet, or of the Senate, 
or of the House, used to resort to him to ask his opinion upon 
questions then before the country. They always found him 
sagacious, competent and helpful. Schofield was a most use- 
ful man. He did his whole duty faithfully. His name and 
his fame will ever be a pride to the Army, and to every lover 
of the Union. 

FRANK WARREN HACKETT. 

Washington, D. C, 

December 30, 1907. 



83 



3ltt ilpmortam. 
Companion JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

By 
Companion Major-General Joseph P. Sanger, U. S. Army. 



I have been asked to prepare a short sketch of General 
SCHOFIELD during my ser\ace with him as aide-de-camp, 
inspector-general, and military secretary. 

During this period, 1884 to 1895, he commanded the Division 
of the Missouri; the Division of the Atlantic and the Army, 
adding largely to his already great reputation as a wise and 
able commander and administrator of civil and military affairs. 

The principal events which occurred during this period were 
the establishment of Fort Sheridan, the disorders at Salt Lake 
City and other places in Utah in 1885-6, growing out of the 
enforcement of the Edmunds law for the suppression of polyg- 
amy; the massacre of Chinese miners at Rock Springs, Wyo- 
ming, September, 1885, by white union miners; the anti-Chinese 
strikes and riots in Washington and Oregon, 1885-6; the threat- 
ened uprising of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, Indian Terri- 
tory; the regeneration of the Artillery, 1886 to 1895; the out- 
break of Sioux Indians and battle of Wounded Knee, 1 890-1; 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

the Cour d'Alene strikes and riots initiated and carried out 
by the Miners' Union, July, 1892; the municipal trouble^ in 
Denver, March, 1894, and the labor strikes and riots in Chicago 
, in July of the same year. 

I joined the General as aide-de-camp in the fall of 1884, 
and found him deeply interested in the idea of a military post 
near Chicago which he regarded as "the most important stra- 
tegical center of the entire northwestern frontier," as well as 
"the most important center of interstate commerce and trans- 
portation in the entire country." Old Fort Dearborn, which 
stood at the mouth of the Chicago River, had been abandoned 
and the reservation devoted to other uses many years before. 
The railroad riots of 1877 had shown the paramount importance 
of a miHtary post near the city, and while General Sheridan, 
when in command of the Division of Missouri, had fully real- 
ized this, but httle had been done to vitahze the idea when 
General Schofield assumed the command. 

Learning from Senator Logan, then Chairman of the Mili- 
tary Committee of the Senate, that an appropriation by Con- 
gress for the purchase of sufficient land was highly improbable, 
yet if the United States owned the land an appropriation to 
build a post could no doubt be readily obtained, it was suggested 
by the General to a few of his Chicago friends that the neces- 
sary land be purchased by subscription and presented to the 
United States. Pending the consideration of this suggestion, 
all suitable and available sites within a radius of twenty-five 
miles of the city, including that on which the post was subse- 
quently located, were carefully examined, the prices of all 
sites obtained, and through the medium of the Chicago Com- 

86 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

mercial Club, the money pledged. Soon after this General 
Sheridan was sent to examine the sites proffered, and selected 
that on which the post now stands. 

General SchofiEld had been in Chicago but a short time 
when he became satisfied that under whatever form, or for 
whatever reason, mob violence was certain to occur there again, 
and that the presence of United States troops would no doubt 
be necessary, hence his keen interest in the establishment of 
Fort Sheridan. 

At that time, 1884, twenty-five railroads entered the city, 
which is divided by the Chicago River into the north, south 
and west sides, connected by bridges and one tunnel, and it 
was deemed of importance to decide definitely after careful 
consideration, at what point in the city United States troops 
should be concentrated in order to best subserve the interests 
of the United States Government. Accordingly, the General 
went over the subject carefully and decided that in view of 
the location of the government buildings, troops entering the 
city should be sent to the south side, and that from no point 
on the south side could a small force be more effectually used 
at the outset, than from the Lake Front Park. 

Subsequent events proved the wisdom of this selection, 
and illustrated the General's life-long practice of preparing in 
advance for any contingency, however remote. It was one of 
his axioms, frequently asserted, that in considering miUtary 
operations, no matter how insignificant, every detail should 
be carefully studied, and as far as possible provided for; noth- 
ing left to chance. Many soldiers have had the same views 
but have sometimes failed to carry them into practice. With 



JOHN MCALUSTER SCHOFIELD. 

General Schofield, it was a guiding principle and his success 
as a general having great civic and military responsibilities 
throughout a long and notable career, was largely due to his 
careful observance of this rule. 

The disturbances which occurred in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado 
and New Mexico in 1886 gave me an excellent opportunity 
of learning the General's methods of deaUng with such occur- 
rences. Of some of them I was an eye-witness as his aide-de- 
camp, and in all cases I had personal knowledge of his views 
and the orders and instructions issued by him. Of the other 
disorders which occurred while I was on duty in Washington 
as inspector-general, I knew only so much as was current in 
the War Department, or as he chose to tell me at the time. 
Subsequently, when I became his miUtary secretary, I learned 
a great deal more. 

What impressed me, however, from the very first, and on 
all subsequent occasions when the General was called on to 
consider the employment of U. S. troops in cases of domestic 
violence, threatened or actual, was his perfectly clear concep- 
tion of the distinction between the military authority of the 
United States and the States, as well as the relations between 
the civil and military authorities of the United States, based 
on his profound knowledge of the Constitution and laws of the 
United States bearing on those subjects. Not only was he 
able to quote the exact language of the Constitution and of 
many of the laws, but what was of more consequence he under- 
stood thoroughly the principles underlying them, as well as 
their proper application under all circumstances. In short, 
he was an authority on that subject. I did not know the reason 

88 



JOHN MCALI.ISTER SCHOFIELD. 

of this at first, but I learned it long before our official relations 
were ended. He had made them a study during his entire 
service, beginning when he was a second lieutenant of artillery. 
In fact, he has said of himself in his Memoirs that after leaving 
West Point where he had been Assistant Professor of Philosophy 
and Astronomy, he found more use for the law than for physics 
and astronomy, and little less than for the art of war. 

Just before he was appointed Secretary of War in 1868, he 
had several conferences with Mr. Kvarts, who said of him that 
he was the best constitutional lawyer he knew; a very high 
compliment from a very distinguished man. 

The troubles in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, 1885-6, 
were not sufficiently serious to demand the presence of the 
General, or active interference on the part of the troops, but 
when the massacre of Chinese miners at Rock Springs occurred, 
and on the request of the Governor of Wyoming, two companies 
of the 2d Infantry from Fort Fred Steele were sent to preserve 
the peace and protect property. 

As the case involved a violation of our treaties with China 
the President directed General SchoField to go to Rock 
Springs, and I went with him. Before leaving Chicago it was 
reported that a strike of the Union Pacific trainmen which had 
been pending for some time was imminent, and it was not 
altogether certain we could get through. 

On arriving in Omaha, General Howard, several reporters 
and certain delegates representing the employees of the Union 
Pacific R. R. boarded our car. General Howard explained 
the progress of events at Rock Springs, adding that a general 
strike of the Union Pacific employees was feared. This gave 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

the delegates an opening and they laid their grievances before 
General SchoFiELD, expecting, as I thought at the time, some- 
thing in the way of arbitration or sympathetic suggestion. 
But the General had given some thought to the subject, and 
while he hoped they might be able to adjust their differences 
with the oflicials of the road, he told them quite plainly a few 
facts with which they did not appear to be familiar, and which 
evidently weakened their purpose. 

He called their attention to the fact that the Union Pacific 
Railroad was established under an act of Congress as a post 
route and military road subject to the use of the U. S. for postal 
and military purposes ; that it was one of his lines of communi- 
cation and indispensable to the transportation and supply of 
the troops along the Hne of the road; that he was traveling 
over it on military duty under orders of the President, and 
that any interference with the road by strikers or their sym- 
pathizers would be regarded by him as an act of war, and that 
if necessary he would use the entire force in the division, num- 
bering at that time about 15,000 men, to protect the road and 
preserve good order. He also advised them to make known 
his intentions to their confederates in Denver and other places. 

The delegates were apparently very much impressed with 
what he said, as well as with his manner, which as usual was 
entirely devoid of excitement, but conveyed beyond the shadow 
of a doubt the absolute sincerity of his purpose and his firm 
resolve to carry it out. At all events, this terminated the 
interview as Avell as all preparations for a strike, which, under 
existing conditions, would have been a most serious matter 
for the Government. The opinion expressed by General 

90 



JOHN MCAI.USTER SCHOFlELD. 

ScHOFiELD on this occasion both as to the status of the U. P. 
R. R. and the authority of the Government and its military 
officers over it, was by no means new or hastily formed. He 
had held it and suggested it before but had never been called 
on to act under it. 

When in 1894 riots and disturbances of all kinds were prev- 
alent in the states of North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washing- 
ton, Wyoming, Colorado and California, the Territories of 
Utah and New Mexico and all the Pacific and other postal 
and military roads were threatened by mobs, the General's 
instructions to the several Department Commanders of July 
7, as well as the proclamation of the President of July 9, 
officially accepted this view, to-Mdt: that it is not necessary 
for the President of the United States to call on the United 
States courts or United States civil officials to give protection to 
military roads established by Congress. He does this, ex-officio, 
as commander-in-chief. Neither is it incumbent on him in 
order to enforce United States laws, to protect the mails 
or United States property anywhere in the United States to 
wait for the action of legislatures or governors, and to General 
ScHOFiELD belongs the honor and the credit of making this 
principle perfectly clear, and the great railroad strike of 1894 
was the occasion. 

It will be remembered that this strike originated with em- 
ployees of the Pullman Company at Pullman, Ills., about two 
thousand of whom stopped work in May, over a refusal of the 
company to raise wages. This was followed by a boycott 
against Pullman cars by the American Railway Union, and 
strikes were ordered on several of the railroads entering Chicago 

91 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

as well as on the Union Transit Stock Yard Co., and there was 
a general refusal to haul Pullman cars. To this end they were 
detached from trains by the strikers, and either badly damaged 
or destroyed, and trains hauling Pullman cars were derailed, 
thus interrupting traffic and obstructing the mails. As soon 
as this state of affairs became known in Washington the United 
States Attorney-General ordered the United States District 
Attorney in Chicago to protect the mail trains with United 
States marshals, and the district court issued an injunction 
against the strikers, to which, however, they paid no attention, 
thus defying the laws and the authority of the United States. 

As the courts were powerless to enforce their decrees, and 
the violence of the mob was sufficient to excite apprehension 
for the safety of United States property in Chicago, the 
question arose at the White House as to whether or not United 
States troops could be ordered to Chicago to enforce the laws, 
protect the government property and remove all obstruction 
to the mails, without a call from the Governor or Legislature 
of Illinois. General SchofieLD had no doubt that they could 
be, as he had studied that question long before, and being 
called to attend a meeting of the Cabinet where the subject 
was considered, so informed the President, who reached the 
same conclusion after some investigation of the laws by the 
Attorney-General . 

In anticipation of this result the General on July 2 telegraphed 
the Commanding General, Department of Missouri, to make 
all necessary arrangements, confidentially, for the transporta- 
tion of the entire garrison of Fort Sheridan to the Lake Front 
Park, Chicago, and that the orders for the movement might 



JOHN MCALLISTKR SCHOFmLD. 

be expected at any time. On the following day the orders 
.were issued to move the troops to Chicago, "there to execute 

the orders and processes of the United States courts, to prevent 

the obstruction of the mails, and generally to prevent the 

obstruction of the laws of the United States." 

Nothing could have been plainer than these two orders, one 

designating the precise place in Chicago, Lake Front Park, to 
which the troops were to go, and the other the exact nature 
of the duties devolving on them. Nevertheless, on the request 
of the United States marshal they were diverted from the Lake 
Front Park and the purpose for which they were sent to Chicago, 
and divided into detachments to protect private property, 
thus violating the posse commitatus law of 1878, disobeying 
their instructions and leaving the protection of the mails and 
United States property to the care of the marshals.* It was 
not the President's intention, nor had he any authority to use 
the troops to preserve the peace in Chicago, or to protect 
private property; for such a purpose the troops could not be 
used without a call from the governor or the legislature. But 
the governor up to that time had not even called out the Na- 
tional Guard, and shortly after protested to the President 
against the presence of United States troops in Chicago, claim- 
ing that they were unnecessary and that the state authorities 
were amply able to enforce the laws, preserve the peace and 
protect property in the city. Of course he was mistaken and 
eventually it required the garrisons of Forts Wayne, Omaha 
and Riley to carry out the President's orders. 

I have cited this case somewhat at length because it shows 

* The Department Commander was absent when these orders were re- 
ceived, but returned to Chicago July 4. 

93 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFlELD. 

how perfectly clear-headed General Schofield was, not only 
as to the authority of the President, but as to the nature of 
the duty demanded of the troops and their tactical employ- 
ment. Concentrated at Lake Front Park and acting as a 
single compact body, as General Schofield intended and 
supposed they would be, the garrison of Fort Sheridan would 
have been amply able, at that stage of the disorder, to execute 
the President's orders, and that was their sole duty. Divided 
into detachments and sent to look after private property, they 
were too weak at all points to make any serious impression 
on the mob, and if while so employed they had been called 
on to protect the property and enforce the laws of the United 
States they would have been unable to do so without a delay 
which might have proved disastrous. 

On the death of General Hancock in the spring of 1886, 
General Schofield was tendered and accepted the command 
of the Divisionof the Atlantic, believing, as he did, that Indian 
wars were approaching an end and that the relative importance 
of the two divisions would change once Congress was aroused 
to the necessities of the sea coast defenses and those of our 
northeastern frontier. He reUnquished command of the Divi- 
sion of the Missouri April 9, and on April 13 assumed com- 
mand of the Division of the Atlantic. 

He immediately commenced an investigation of the arma- 
ment and condition of all the defenses in the division as well 
as the condition and employment of the artillery troops where- 
ever stationed. 

There were at that time sixty-six military posts in the 
Division of the Atlantic, of which twenty-seven were garrisoned 

94 



JOHN MCALLISTKR SCHOFIELD. 

and thirty-nine nngarrisoncd. Of the total number, fifty-one 
were sea coast forts, and the remainder barracks, properly 
speaking. Of the garrisoned forts fifteen had no armaments 
and the armaments of all the others were the old muzzle load- 
ing types of low power, mounted usually on barbette carriages. 
The efficiency of the artillery personnel was far from satisfactory, 
owing to a lack of proper instruction, due in turn to a lack of 
proper facilities. Artillery target practice, except at Forts 
Hamilton, Wadsworth and Monroe, had practically ceased 
in the Division, and of the forty-five companies of artillery 
comprising seventy-five per cent of the entire artillery troops 
of the army, only ten batteries, continually at the artillery 
school, Fort Monroe, had had annual target practice during the 
preceding ten years, and some of the batteries had not fired a shot. 
Of course the General was unable to efifect any immediate 
improvement in the armament; that could only be done by 
the Ordnance Department under an appropriation bv Congress. 
Nevertheless, through his annual reports, and other commu- 
nications, written and oral, and his personal influence as a 
general officer of artillery training and high scientific accom- 
plishments, he was able to present the defects of our defenses 
so graphically as to excite public interest in a subject which, 
except in the Engineer and Ordnance Departments, had been 
allowed to sleep since the report of t}ie Endicott Board had 
awakened the country to our defenseless condition. But 
while improvement in the forts and guns must be necessarily 
slow, no reason was apparent why the foot artillery' should not 
be aroused from its condition of lethargy as ' ' red legged inf antr}', ' ' 
and made efficient in its legitimate and paramount duties. 

95 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

General Schofield recognized at the outset that, however 
desirable, this would not be an easy matter. All of the field 
officers and many of the captains and lieutenants of artillery 
were past middle age, and had grown old under a system of 
instruction which was confined mainly to the manual of the 
piece and infantry drill. The suggestion that there was any 
necessity for a change was met by a counter suggestion that 
the change would come with the change of armament, and that 
in the meantime, as one old officer put it, "they wanted to be 
left alone." But having once gone over the subject with great 
care, considering it as was his habit, from all points of view, 
including the apathy and indifference to be overcome among 
the older officers, the General resolved to go ahead. 

It is not necessary to relate in detail the story of artillery 
regeneration ; it is sufficient to say that within two years after 
he assumed command of the Division of the Atlantic, a system 
of target practice and fire control had been initiated, applicable 
to all the sea coast defenses in the Division, and that on his 
accession to the command of the army in 1888 he extended 
this system to the other coast defenses. 

Meanwhile, September 22, 1888, the Board of Ordnance and 
Fortifications was established and General SchoFiEld was its 
first president. Nothing could have been more fortunate for 
the artillery. His evenly balanced mind, his scientific training 
and his knowledge of existing defects in the artillery, enabled 
him to direct the operations of the Board with such wisdom 
and discretion as to be highly beneficial to the military needs 
of the country. 

The start thus given the artillery by General SchoField as 

96 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

a division commander received such an impetus at his hands 
after he succeeded to the command of the army, that it has 
been able to overcome all obstacles, and no one would think 
of comparing the artillery of 1886 with the highly trained 
and expert artillery corps of the present day. 

It must not be supposed that in his anxiety to reform the 
foot artillery, General ScHOFiELD overlooked the field artillery. 
On the contrary, back in 1868, while Secretary of War, he es- 
tablished a school for field artillery at Fort Riley, which for 
some unexplained reason was broken up by his successor a 
few years later. As soon, however, as he assumed connnand 
of the Division of the Missouri (1883), he revived the idea of 
a field artillery school at Fort Riley, and as General vSheridan 
was equally interested in a school for cavalry, they joined 
forces and the present school for Cavalry and Light Artillery 
at Fort Riley was the result. 

It would be difficult to estimate the great value of General 
SchofiEld's services in reforming the artillery. Gen. Henry 
J. Hunt and other prominent artillery officers were fully aware 
of its defects, but from causes inherent in the organization of 
our army and from personal jealousies they were never able 
to stir the "authorities that be," or infuse into the artillery 
itself a full reaUzation of the importance of doing something 
besides criticize. The infantry and cavalry had always been 
looked after, owing to the large preponderance of general and 
staff officers appointed from among them. The artillery, 
on the contrary, despite its glorious services during the Mexican 
and Civil Wars, had been allowed to remain stagnant, unaf- 
fected by the progress of science and the artillery reforms 
everywhere adopted in the armies of Europe. 

97 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

However he might have wished to do so, it is extremely 
doubtful whether any other general officer of our army could 
have done for the artillery what General Schofield did. Some- 
thing more than high rank and the ability to command large 
bodies of troops was necessary, and this General SchoFiELD had, 
namely, a mind thoroughly trained to scientific investigation, 
a full knowledge of the status of foreign artillery systems and 
a practical idea of what was necessary. Besides this he enjoyed 
the confidence of the army and of the artillery which soon 
entered into his plans for its amelioration, reaching at last its 
present high state of efficiency. 

One other event occurred while the General was in command 
of the Division of the Atlantic which is worthy of note as it 
brought to light very forcibly one of the most pernicious and 
demoralizing theories which ever emanated from the War 
Department. I refer to the theory of multiple command 
under which the order of the chief of a bureau of the War 
Department was claimed to be the order of the Secretary of 
War in the same way that the order of the Secretary of War 
is the order of the President, and equally operative and binding 
on the army. It so happened that a contract for beef approved 
by General SchofiELD, was awarded by the Chief Commissary 
of the division. It was not given to the lowest bidder who 
had defaulted on the contract of the previous year, and whose 
bondsmen had failed to qualify as required by law;. He ap- 
pealed to the War Department, whereupon the Commissary 
General ordered the Chief Commissary of the Division in a 
letter sent to him direct, and without notice of any kind to 
General SchofiELD, to annul the contract already awarded, 
and make a new contract with the lowest bidder. 

98 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

Against this wholly unprecedented overruling of his authority 
as Division Commander by a subordinate officer of the War 
Department the General appealed to the Secretary of War; 
but it so happened that when his letter reached the War Depart- 
ment the Commissary General was acting Secretary of War, 
and promptly decided against him for the reason already 
stated, which caused the General to remark that "it was quite 
important for an officer not to enter a combat where he is sure 
to be beaten, as, for instance, where his opponent is the judge 
who is to decide the issue." Of course that put an end to the 
controversy for the time being, but soon after he was assigned 
to the command of the army the General brought the case 
to the attention of the Secretary, who promptly disclaimed 
ever having knowingly given his sanction to the doctrine 
proclaimed by the Commissary General. 

In a short time this theory was utterly repudiated as no 
doubt it should have been, for nothing in the way of mal- 
administration could have been more pernicious and subversive 
of the authority of division and department commanders. 
Under this theory military operations could be so jeopardized 
by the chiefs of the staff departments acting through their 
subordinates on the staffs of military commanders as to make 
them all but impossible, and General Schofield could have 
rendered no greater service to the army and the country at 
that time than by courageously denouncing this absurd and 
unwarranted assumption of the authority of the Secretary of 
War and in trying to put an end to it. 

No other event occurred at all commensurate with this 
unless it was the regeneration of the artillery, while General 

99 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

ScHOFiELD remained in command of the Division. Of minor 
events I can recall the Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty 
Enlightening the World, of which he had charge, the visit of 
Queen Kapiolani of the Hawaiian Islands, and the first attempt 
to inaugurate joint maneuvers of the Army and Navy sug- 
gested by General Schofield and Rear Admiral Luce for the 
purpose of testing the efficiency of our coast defenses and which 
has now become a part of our annual artillery instruction. 

In June, 1888, under a change in the Army Regulations 
affecting aides, I was reUeved from duty with General Schofield 
and ordered to join my company in California, and soon after 
General Schofield, on the death of General Sheridan, was placed 
in command of the army. 

In the spring of 1889 I was appointed Major and Inspector- 
General and ordered to the Department of the Missouri, with 
headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. In the fall of that year 
the Secretary of War accompanied by General Schofield visited 
Fort Leavenworth and I then learned from him of his first 
experiences in command of the army, an account of which 
will be found in his published Memoirs. I was not surprised 
to hear that an attempt had been made to misrepresent him 
to the Secretary, or that the attempt had failed, and its 
author discredited and humiliated. General Schofield was 
fully conversant with the methods prevailing in the War Depart- 
ment by which the Commanding General was stripped of all 
authority and made to appear as a mere figurehead, and he 
was resolved before he went to Washington not to be victim- 
ized as his predecessors had been. Accordingly he took advan- 
tage of the first opportunity to expose those methods to the 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIKLD. 

Secretary, square himself with that official, and, if possible, 
gain his confidence. All officers who served in the War Depart- 
ment while he was there know how well he succeeded, becoming, 
in fact as in name, the Commanding General of the army. 

In the fall of 1890 I was reHeved from duty as Inspector- 
General, Department of Missouri, and ordered to report to 
the Inspector-General of the army. I continued on duty in 
the War Department as an inspector until General Schofield, 
by a special act of Congress, was appointed Lieutenant-General 
(1895), when I became his military secretary. 

During this period I saw a great deal of the General and 
made several inspections for him, the most important of which 
was the entire line of sea coast defenses from Fort Livingston, 
Barataria Bay, Gulf of Mexico, to Fort Delaware on the Dela- 
ware River. This inspection grew out of the agitation over 
Cuba, and General Schofield's desire to know the exact state 
of all the forts, whether garrisoned or not. 

The riots and mob violence already mentioned developed 
much ignorance as to the duty of troops in such cases, and 
called forth the instructions of May 25 and July 9, 1894, for 
the government of the army in dealing with mobs, prepared 
by General Schofield. These instructions embodied the legal 
and tactical considerations involved in the employment of 
troops acting under the orders of the President to enforce the 
laws of the United vStates and protect government property. 
They were embodied in the Army Regulations of 1895, and 
settled for all time, it is hoped, a question about which there 
had existed a great deal of misapprehension even among 
officers of the highest rank. It may be said that this was 
the last great service rendered by General Schofield to the 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

Government, as on the 29th of September, 1895, he was placed 
on the retired list of the army. 

In this brief sketch I have endeavored to set forth so much 
of General Schofield's miHtary services as came under my per- 
sonal observation during a period of comparative peace, and 
while the events herein stated, as compared with the more 
stirring incidents in General Schofield's life, may seem to the 
reader of little importance, they served to demonstrate his 
unusual foresight and how thoroughly competent he was to 
deal with complex and obscure military questions but little 
understood, apparently, by the army, and to act as military 
adviser to the President and vSecretary of War. In this last 
respect he probably met with greater success than any of his 
predecessors. General Grant alone excepted. That he should 
have won their confidence was natural enough as he was rarely 
if ever mistaken on any question involving a knowledge of our 
laws or the appHcation of broad principles of military command 
and administration. This was no doubt due in great measure 
to his unusual power of concentrated and long sustained men- 
tal effort, which, united with his love of investigation and analy- 
sis, enabled him to go to the bottom of every question, and to 
discern its vital point in the cold light of reason, unclouded 
by sophistry of any kind. 

Toward the end of his life he gave up certain field sports 
of which he was very fond, and did not take quite as much 
physical exercise perhaps, as he should have done, but on no 
occasion did his brilliant mind give the least indication of lost 
power until death claimed him. 

In manner he was deliberate, quiet and reserved, as are 
most men of strong, well equipped minds and large experience. 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

but beneath his reserve was a gentleness and kindness rarely 
met with in public men. He was modest and unassuming 
and of great nobility of character. In all my intercourse 
with him as his aide, his companion and intimate friend, I never 
knew him to lose control of his temper, although sometimes 
irritated or annoyed. He usually took things as they came 
with quiet dignity and neither longed for the impossible nor 
found fault with the inevitable. 

These traits of character, his profound knowledge of all 
branches of military art and science, his clear and convincing 
orders and instructions, his tolerance of the views of others, 
and the fact that he was never meddlesome, impatient or over- 
exacting, made service on his staff not only a delight but a 
professional education of the highest order, to which I always 
look back with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction. 

In his own home and in all his family relations he was an 
idol of affectionate regard, sharing generously with those who 
had been less fortunate, the fruits of his industry and success. 

While his services during the Civil War were not as great 
or as conspicuous as those of Grant or Sherman or Sheridan, 
his services after the war, in their importance and their influ- 
ence on the army, were unexcelled by the services of any other 
general officer, and I have no doubt the future historian will 
record the fact. 

Finally, he was an exalted patriot, loving and serving his 
country with exceptional honor and intelligence and with a 
single eye to its interests. He died, full of years and honors, 
having the respect, confidence and affection of all with whom 
he was closely associated, and leaving to coming generations 
a lasting example of the highest type of American soldier. 

JOSEPH P. SANGER. 
103 



3n Msmav'xmn, 

Companion JOHN McALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

By 

Companion Colonel John W. Foster, U. S. Volunteers. 



Washington, D. C, 

May 22, 1907. 
General Thos. M. Vincent. 

My dear General: — Referring to your letter of the 20th; 
as I expect to go abroad in a short time I thought I had better 
comply with your request at once. I therefore send you, 
herewith, a brief paper on General John M. Schofield. 
Very truly, 

JOHN W. FOSTER. 

My acquaintance and association with General John M. 
Schofield during the Civil War was brief. He assumed com- 
mand of the Department of the Ohio, which included the 
Twenty-third Army Corps, in February, 1864. I was at that 
time in command of the Second Cavalry Division of that Corps, 
bivouacked north of Knoxville watching the movements of 
Longstreet's army. Six months of continuous and active 
campaigning and the unusual severity of the winter made it 

105 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

necessary for me to accept a sick leave, and before it expired 
General Schofield and his army had joined in Sherman's 
advance upon Atlanta, and the remainder of my service during 
the Civil War was under other commanders. I never met 
him again until many years after the war was over. 

Having formed a pleasant acquaintance with him, however, 
I followed his later military career with deep interest, and 
heard much especially of probably the most brilliant of his 
victories, the battle of Franklin. The Sixty-fifth Indiana 
Regiment, of which I was the first colonel, bore a conspicuous 
part in that contest, and my old comrades delighted in after 
years in telling me of General Schofield's gallant and skillful 
management on that memorable occasion. The account 
which the General himself has given of that battle in his book 
"Forty-six Years in the Army," is a modest but thrillingly 
interesting narrative. 

After I parted from him in February, 1864, we did not meet 
for more than twenty-five years. During that time we had 
both been in the service of our country in widely separated 
and different fields. We came together in Washington, he at 
the head of the Army of the United States, and I as Secretary 
of State, and in our official relations we were often thrown 
into each other's company. In 1892 the Grand Army of the 
Republic met in Washington, and at the reunion of the Twenty- 
third Army Corps I was asked to preside and General Schofield 
was the chief guest of honor, on which occasion he was pre- 
sented with a richly jeweled badge of the Corps and responded 
very feelingly to the presentation address. The hearty mani- 
festation of the battle-scarred veterans at that reunion testified 

106 



JOHN MCALLISTER SCHOFIELD. 

to the high regard they had for his services to his country 
and their esteem for him as a citizen. 

After that date I was frequently in his company, as following 
his retirement it was his custom to make a visit to Washington 
every year, and we spent many pleasant and interesting hours 
together, discussing war times and the public questions of the 
day. He was a man of wide study and information, of clear 
and positive views of current affairs, and of the most exalted 
patriotism. He was one of the best examples of the utility 
of the West Point military education. He was not only a 
trained soldier, but he followed up the instruction given at 
the Academy by a careful study of the writers on military 
science, and sought to fit himself to give his country the very 
best service he could render it. Not the least of his labors 
was the preparation and publication of his life experience 
in his book, "Forty-six Years in the Army, "which is not only 
a valuable contribution to the history of the period, but abounds 
in useful observations for the military and poUtical student. 

JOHN W. FOSTER. 

Washington, 

May 22, 1907. 



107 



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BY-LAWS. 
***** 

Deaths. 
21. The death of a Companion shall be announced in a Circular, which 
shall give his official record in the military or naval service, and record 
in the Order. 



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(Snmpnutnn 

]obn IDcJillistcr Scboficld* 

Born at Gerry, New York, vSeptember 29, 1831. 
Died at St. Augustine, Florida, March 4, 1906. 

Cadet, U. S. Military Academy, July i, 1849. 

Brevet Second Lieutenant, 2d U. vS. Artillery, July i, 1853; Second Lieu- 
tenant, I St Artillery, August 31, 1853; First Lieutenant, March 3, 1855; 
Captain, May 14, 1861. 

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, November 30, 1864; Major-General, 
March 4, 1869; Lieutenant-General, February =, 1895; Retired, September 
29, 1895. 

Brevet Major-General, U. S. Army, March 13, 1865, for "gallant and 
meritorious services in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee." 

Major, ist Missouri Infantry, April 26, 1861; Major, ist Missouri Artil- 
lery, June 26, 1861. 

Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, November 21, 1861; Major-General, 
November 29, 1862; Expired by Constitutional limitation, March 4, 1863; 
Brigadier-General, March 4, 1863; Major-General, May 12, 1864; honorably 
mustered out, September i, 1866. 

Elected through the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania, April 
12, 1 87 1. Original. Insignia 1274. 

Transferred to the Commandery of the State of California as Charter 
Member, May 3, 1871; to the Commandery of the State of New York, 
October 31, 1878; to the Commandery of the State of California, February 
7, 18S3; to the Commandery of the State of Illinois, May 5, 1884; to 
the Commandery of the State of New York, October 16, 1886; to the 
Commandery of the District of Columbia, May 7, 1890. 

Commander of the Commandery of the State of GaHfornia, May 3, 1871, 
to May I, 1876. 

Commander of the Commandery of the State of New York, May 7, 1879- 
May 4, 1 881, and May 4, 1887, to May i, 1889. 

Commander-in-Chief of the Order, October 18, 1899, to October 21, 1903. 



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